WASHINGTON – Far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert pulled off the narrowest of victories in Republican-friendly territory last fall, defeating Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes and surprising political observers who hadn’t had Colorado’s sleepy race in the your radar
Frisch is looking for a comeback, and Boebert, a brand of conservative and culture warrior, has not moderated his policy positions or toned down his rhetoric in his second term on Capitol Hill. Instead, Boebert has drawn national headlines for taking on President Joe Biden and his own GOP leadership.
In January, she and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, nearly derailed GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker in a dramatic House showdown. she accidentally lost the biggest vote of the year: a vote to raise the debt ceiling he had opposed. Last month, he angered GOP leaders and colleagues by trying to force a vote on President Joe Biden’s impeachment over border issues before House investigations into him were finished.
Now, he’s fighting for the government funding needed to pass military policy bills, demanding that they include right-wing policies to win his vote.
“A lot of Republicans have been baffled by her,” said Dick Wadhams, the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party from 2007 to 2011. “She hasn’t changed her style of operation, not substantially or generally.”
One House GOP lawmaker, who knows Boebert well, offered this advice: “His ass needs to get home to campaign. Cut ribbons, go to bar mitzvahs, and take credit for things with which had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
In a part of Colorado that leans conservative but is used to electing pragmatic Republicans and Democrats who tend to focus on local issues like water, natural resources and agriculture, Boebert stands out the wrong way from a segment of voters, Wadhams said.
“The perception, whether it’s fair or not, is that Congresswoman Boebert has paid more attention to fighting these battles within the Republican Party than she has in the district,” said the former Colorado GOP leader. “Now, I’m sure his office would refute that. The problem is that it’s obscured by how he’s been behaving. And that’s what he’s struggling with right now.”
When asked if he planned to change his focus this cycle, Boebert blamed his close call in 2022 on “ballot picking” — a GOP term for the collection of absentee ballots by third parties — instead of what Democrats have called “MAGA extremism” and political charades. .
“We’ve got to get voter turnout. I think every Republican needs to focus on getting out the vote where it’s legal in Colorado. And, I mean, that’s something we’ve got to pay attention to or we’re going to continue to mess we’re in,” Boebert said in an interview as he walked down the Capitol steps. “Democrats chase ballots while we chase voters. And so, I mean, we’ve got to get into the game.”
But Boebert also said he has focused on “delivering” in Colorado’s third district, which includes rural areas, the cities of Grand Junction and Pueblo and the wealthy ski resorts around Aspen. While she did not provide specifics, and her office did not respond to a request for comment, some recent press releases have focused on local issues, like hers. water bill get a hearing, your bill take out the gray wolf from the list of endangered species to leave the commission and ensure a $5 million grant for a rural health center in a spending package he voted against.
“In the previous Congress, I couldn’t do as much because we were in the minority,” he said. “And we have a wonderful advantage of having this majority where I can really get victories for my district.”
Once the owner of the gun themed restaurant Shooters GrillBoebert, 36, has amassed millions of followers on social media and a major platform outside of Congress on conservative podcasts and TV shows, and at political conventions.
Democrats, and even some Republicans, say his rising national profile has overshadowed any supposed local wins. Boebert recently grabbed headlines after another conservative hero, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, called her colleague a “little whore” on the House floor, an altercation that led to Greene’s ouster from the far-right Freedom Caucus. Although Greene has now aligned himself with McCarthy, Boebert remains a thorn in his side.
“People want the circus to stop,” Frisch said, accusing Boebert of going on “all kinds of wild goose chases and causing all kinds of drama” that doesn’t matter to the district. “He’s one of those people who still loves to get on Twitter and the cable news networks and scream and scream.”
“She’s not focused on the district, she’s focused on herself,” he said. “And we’re going to hammer her into it.”
In a phone interview, Frisch said he had only needed “two more weeks with just gas station money” to win the 2022 race. Now, he says, he will have the time and resources to close the deal. Frisch raised $2.6 million to Boebert’s $818,000 in the second quarter; he reported having $2.5 million in cash on hand to Boebert’s $1.4 million, according to campaign reports.
“He doesn’t seem to be taking the job any more seriously than he used to. And again, that’s bad for the district and bad for the country,” Frisch said.
Adam Frisch, then a Democratic candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District seat, in Pueblo in September.David Zalubowski/AP file
He promised that if elected, his focus would be on local issues such as water, rural health, rural education, agriculture, livestock and natural resources.
But the Democrat still faces an uptick in the Republican-friendly district, which former President Donald Trump carried by 8 percentage points in 2020, according to data tracked by daily cost
But Frisch, 55, said the 2022 result shows he appeals to nominal Republicans, including Trump voters, calling himself a “very conservative Democrat running against an extremist.” He wants to join the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus and be one of the five most bipartisan members of Congress. He said he disagrees with his party on energy policy, seeing a bigger role for oil and gas alongside clean energy (although he said he would have voted for the Energy Reduction Act of inflation). And he wouldn’t say whether he supports Biden’s bid for re-election in 2024.
“I share the concern that most people have that it’s a little disappointing that we’re left with a sort of redo in 2020,” he said. “I’m laser-focused on what’s going on in CD-3.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, however, is eager to paint Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member, as too liberal for the district.
“Adam Frisch is a liberal hack who travels the district spreading lies like a snake oil salesman. Coloradans see right through his act,” said NRCC Regional Press Secretary Delanie Bomar.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a Frisch supporter this cycle and last, acknowledged that Boebert, with millions of social media followers on the right, can raise campaign cash with things like the his drive to impeach Biden. But he noted that Boebert voted no on Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is expected to bring billions in funding to the Centennial State and will be a major focus of Democratic campaigns next year.
“There are those who can monetize extremism, monetize selfish politics. And it might to some extent, but that only gets you so far when you’re literally not submitting funding requests for roads and bridges and water infrastructure,” Crow said. “You can only hide it for so long And clearly the last cycle, the squad was ready. The squad is even higher now.”
Wadhams warned that Democrats will put a premium on getting Boebert out of Congress, which could force the national GOP to spend money to step in and bail her out.
“It’s become kind of a national symbol of what they want to beat,” Wadhams said. “It’s going to be a tug-of-war between these two. It’s not going to be pretty. And it’s going to come down to the wire.”
