Lauren Boebert said she is not a "snotty-nosed politician," but she is running again

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, an outspoken conservative who calls herself “a fearless conservative Republican” and has made waves for her divisive comments, has announced she will seek reelection in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District on Nov. 8.

Boebert, 35, of Rifle, has stirred up plenty of controversy in her first year serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. She represents Pueblo County and all or part of two dozen other Colorado counties in the south and west portions of the state.

In her first year in public office, Boebert, who prided herself on being the first woman, mother and youngest representative of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, served on the natural resources and budget committees as well as the Indigenous Peoples of the United States and Water, Oceans and Wildlife subcommittees.

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Boebert touts gun rights advocacy

Boebert is a gun rights advocate who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus. She is known to many as the representative who made a video in January in which she said she “refuses” to give up any of her rights including her Second Amendment rights. In the video, Boebert loaded and holstered a pistol before walking around the Capitol Hill area of Washington D.C.

She said she will “stick up for our rights, one of those being the right to protect myself with a gun."

"A lot of you scratched your heads and asked, how the heck did I win?” Boebert said in a Dec. 31 speech announcing her re-election bid in Grand Junction.

“I won, and I will win again because I believe in freedom."

In that speech, which her campaign spokesperson, who asked not to be named, read to The Pueblo Chieftain, Boebert took plenty of swipes at Democrats and “so-called Republicans” indicating she “is happy to be calling them out on their B.S. every chance I get.”

Boebert remarks aimed at Omar alone

Just last month, Boebert came under fire for racist remarks she made toward fellow Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is Muslim. She later apologized for those remarks in a Twitter post, addressing her apology not to Omar, but to "anyone in the Muslim community" who was offended by her remarks.

Boebert's campaign spokesperson said it was not fair for the media to characterize her statements controversial rhetoric, as the comments were directed at Omar alone and not to the Muslim people because “she in no way thinks less of them.”

But in her speech, she said she is glad to "scare the heck out of liberals,” and said she is not a member of the “snotty-nosed politicians club, a career politician or a good ol’ boy.”

When pushed on how she could state, “The far left has taken a wrecking ball to our nation,” but still work together with Democrats, her spokesperson said she has twice worked with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado’s Democratic Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet by making sure emergency funds were made available to reopen I-70 when mudslides closed the busy interstate earlier this year and in an effort to continue to study new alternate routes to I-70.

Her spokesperson said Boebert also worked with the state’s Democrats to keep the U.S. Bureau of Land Management headquarters in Grand Junction which was a bipartisan, “hard-fought effort.”

Boebert details accomplishments

In her speech, Boebert listed her accomplishments which included introducing 24 bills and co-sponsoring "nearly 200 pieces of legislation" in 2021.

"My legislation addressed a wide-range of policies including infrastructure, defunding the green new deal policies, prohibiting illegal immigration and illegal immigrants from receiving checks, securing our Southern border and ending other amnesty initiatives, defunding critical race theory policies, defunding constitutional mandates, combating Western drought, preventing catastrophic wildfires, supporting mental health for veterans and investigating the World Health Organization and Chinese government’s handling of COVID," Boebert said in her speech.

Boebert said she also authored and filed nearly 100 amendments during the appropriations process, which was "more than any other member of Congress.”

Pueblo challenger said Boebert 'picks fights'

Among Boebert’s Democratic challengers is Puebloan Soledad Sandoval Tafoya who goes by Sol Sandoval.

"Lauren Boebert has nothing to run on for reelection. She hasn’t done anything,” Sandoval said.

“She hasn’t passed a single bill. She’s voted against COVID relief for businesses, helping rural schools, and even against putting real money in people’s pockets.

“I’m running against Boebert because I believe the people and the community deserve someone who listens and represents them, on everything from small business to education. They deserve a representative who will do the work, not pick fights on the internet."

Sandoval and seven other Democrats will face off during a June 28 primary election which will determine the lone Democratic candidate for the Nov. 8 election.

Boebert also faces an Independent challenger, Kristin Skowronski and Republican Marina Zimmerman has announced she will primary Boebert.

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Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert seeks reelection in Colorado's 3rd District