Lauren Boebert's Too-Close-to-Call House Race Nears a Recount in Nail-Biter Election
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Joe Raedle/Getty Lauren Boebert
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is in position to narrowly win her bid for reelection to the House, so long as a state-mandated recount doesn't change the final tally.
Boebert, 35, ran in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District against Democrat Adam Frisch, a former city council member and finance professional from Aspen. For a time while votes were being counted, it appeared likely she may be unseated after only one term in office.
The politician — a provocative right-winger in the mold of former President Donald Trump — had been heavily favored to win reelection going into Nov. 8, but when results began pouring in, Frisch was unexpectedly in the lead. She eventually surpassed Frisch, and finished within 0.5 points of him, triggering an automatic recount that will delay the official call.
With more than 95 percent of ballots counted as of Thursday evening, The New York Times declared that Boebert garnered 50.08 percent of the votes while Frisch had 49.92.
Prior to the first votes being posted on election night that suggested a tough battle for Boebert, she tweeted triumphantly, "The red wave has begun! . . . America First is winning!"
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Win McNamee/Getty
First elected to Congress in 2020, Boebert won the Republican primary in her western Colorado district in June.
The lawmaker's freshman term has been checkered with controversy that Boebert herself courted. Earlier this year, she called a Republican primary challenger a "groomer," a term for a person who sexually abuses children.
She feuded last year with Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, about whom she has made racist comments, calling her a member of "the jihad squad" and accusing her of "praising terrorists."
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Boebert was also accused of meeting with organizers of pro-Trump rallies on Jan. 6, 2021. She has denied any involvement in the violent riot that followed, though her tweets during the attack — "Today is 1776," one said, while another indicated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's whereabouts — have been criticized.
A fervent gun advocate who vowed in a political ad to carry a weapon to work in Congress, Boebert reportedly got into a standoff with Capitol Police when she refused to allow officers to search her bag after setting off metal detectors just days after the insurrection.
JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Lauren Boebert
The editorial board of Boebert's state newspaper of record, The Denver Post, offered a blisteringly critical assessment of her tenure, imploring voters in a recent op-ed not to vote for the incumbent congresswoman this year.
The board wrote that Boebert "has not represented the 3rd Congressional District well. Almost exclusively, she has spent her time and efforts contributing to the toxic political environment in this nation."
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The editorial continued: "Boebert's unproductive approach, combined with the efforts of others, has helped erode Congress' ability to honestly debate public policy that could help people in her district."
The paper also detailed another controversy facing Boebert: that she has "opposed every effort to protect public lands in the district" while also failing to disclose in a timely manner that her husband "made almost $1 million as a consultant for the largest drilling company in the 3rd Congressional District's Piceance Basin."
