Rep. Lauren Boebert Wins Colorado GOP Primary in Bid for Reelection

JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Lauren Boebert

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert won the Republican primary election in western Colorado's Congressional District 3 on Tuesday.

The freshman lawmaker, 35, received over 60,000 votes (63.3 percent) of the 85 percent reported, per the New York Times. Her opponent, state Sen. Don Coram, earned over 35,000 votes (36.7 percent). The race was called by the Associated Press at 7:36 p.m. local time.

Boebert — one of 147 Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the electoral vote count after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — has been at the center of several controversies since she began her term in office in January 2021.

Accused of meeting with organizers of pro-Trump rallies on Jan. 6, Boebert has denied any involvement in the violent riot that followed. Her tweets during the attack — "Today is 1776," one said, while another indicated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's whereabouts — have been criticized.

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An avid advocate for gun rights 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.

Boebert also interrupted President Joe Biden's State of the Union address earlier this year while he was speaking about increasing support for veterans — which he said was close to his heart as his older son, former National Guardsman Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015.

As the president spoke, Boebert was heard calling out "13 of them" — an apparent reference to the service members killed in a suicide attack in the final days of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan — in a rare moment of open animosity during such speeches.

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She has clashed with other members of Congress, too.

During a debate on a resolution to censure fellow Republican Rep. Paul Gosar for posting an anime video depicting violence against another member of Congress, Boebert made a racist comment directed at Muslim Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, calling her a member of "the jihad squad" and accusing her of "praising terrorists."

Video footage of a Boebert campaign event showed her telling a story about running into Omar in a Capitol elevator. In her anecdote, Boebert delivered the "jihad squad" line and implied that she was safe in an elevator with Omar because she wasn't carrying a backpack.

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Boebert also criticized Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for taking parental leave after he and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, welcomed twins Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to their family.

"The guy was gone. The guy was not working! Because why? He was trying to figure out how to chest feed," Boebert said in a November 2021 video, before going on to say that "ain't nobody got time for two and a half months" of parental leave.

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Earlier this month, Colorado officials opened an investigation into Boebert's 2020 campaign reimbursements to determine whether the more than $22,000 she paid herself with campaign funds was justified.