DENVER (AP) – Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, a stretch of ski resorts, national forest, farms, coal towns and desert tables the size of Pennsylvania, has long been creating discreet politicians.
Its voters leaned slightly to the right, valuing practicality and for years rewarding representatives for achievements that fall below national radar, such as the Hermosa Creek Watershed Act, an achievement by former Republican MP Scott Tipton.
So far.
The district’s newest representative, Republican Lauren Boebert, is a sassy and loyal to former President Donald Trump, who understands social media who, like his first-term colleague, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, is stirring controversy with their far-right opinions and challenging actions. But unlike Greene, Boebert does not come from a safe and overwhelmingly GOP district.
This makes Boebert a test case for whether even a slight party advantage will inevitably strengthen the most extreme elements of a party. The question that strategists in Colorado and elsewhere in this divided country are asking themselves is whether Boebert is a fluke – or the future.
“Are we so stuck, so partisan, that it overshadows everything, even in these nearby neighborhoods?” asked Floyd Ciruli, a veteran Colorado researcher. “Bringing up such controversial forces and eliminating a titleholder was not dangerous, even in a district like that.”
Boebert, 34, who owns a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle City, immediately started to be successful. In her first month in office, she filmed a video in which she intended to carry a pistol in defiance of the District of Columbia anti-law laws, defended the right to bring firearms to the House and voted to overthrow President Joe Biden’s election and tweeted about the whereabouts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6, leading to claims – which she strongly denies – that she was helping Trump loyalists who attacked the United States Capitol.
His first taste of politics came as a response to the polarization across the hall. In 2019, former Texas deputy Beto O’Rourke, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, promised to ban assault weapons. He held an event in the Denver suburb of Aurora, near the site of the Aurora theater massacre in 2012.
Boebert took a four-hour drive from his home in Rifle to confront O’Rourke about his statement that “hell, yes” he was taking AR-15s. “Hell, no, you’re not,” she said.
Cristy Fidura, 43, who with her husband, a former oilfield worker, owns a road transport company in the former steel city of Pueblo, never got involved in politics – until she saw that confrontation. She immediately became one of Boebert’s first supporters.
“I could relate to her, just like President Trump. He is not a politician and she is not a politician, and running this country is a business, ”said Fidura. “I feel that many people are convinced that the government has to make decisions for them and I think that is sad, that is scary.”
Marla Reichert, chairman of the Pueblo County Republican Party, said voters in the district had long wanted someone to vote for them in Washington and tell Democrats “hell, no” to exaggerate.
Tipton, a five-term holder that Boebert defeated in the Republican primaries last year, “voted in the right way. People just didn’t think he was there fighting the Democrats. He wasn’t on Fox News, backing out, ”said Reichert.
In an interview, Boebert said voters in the district are looking forward to a rupture. “My voters are tired of the old lifestyle that we tend to see in politicians,” she said.
Boebert insists that she and the rest of the first-term legislators are the future, even in districts like hers.
“It is the America First movement that you are seeing nationally and definitely in my district,” she said.
Josh Penry, a veteran Republican strategist who represented the area in Colorado’s state chamber, is skeptical of the persistence of Boebert’s style.
“There are very real limits to this change in rural Colorado, which is why it only won 51%,” said Penry. “When the hiss goes away, there will be large blocks of voters who will be fully available and will want to know if your congresswoman is trying to be part of the solution between the cable news successes.
Boebert defeated his Democratic opponent from 51% to 45% in November. More Republicans than Democrats are registered voters, although the largest bloc is not affiliated and the district is winning retirees and refugees from left-leaning urban areas.
Democrats are lining up potential adversaries to 2022. Although the state Republican Party embraced Boebert, some in the GOP whisper about a possible primary challenge.
The biggest threat could be redistricting. In 2022, a non-partisan commission will have redesigned the boundaries of the district of Boebert, which may become more democratic or more republican with the inclusion of some neighboring communities.
Boebert’s first projects as a congressman – opposing Biden’s mandate to wear a mask on federal properties and retaining funds to return to the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization – will get nowhere. But his criticism of Biden’s pause in oil and gas exploration on federal land, which covers 55% of the district, has been accepted by voters who depend on the industry.
Republicans here have praise and warnings for the congresswoman.
Scott McInnis, a six-year-old former Republican congressman from the district, said the high-tension party war has not paid off for voters in the region. “You need to have good communication with local communities to quickly facilitate what they need from the federal government, be it a license to graze for cattle or to ski,” he said.
Janet Rowland, the Mesa county commissioner who advised Boebert in her campaign, said Boebert must continue to fight the efforts of the Biden government to halt drilling on federal land. She praised Boebert, but said the new deputy needs to work with the Biden government when she can – and to oppose when necessary.
“Our residents are tired of the ongoing attacks on both sides,” said Rowland. “Biden won. He’s our president. Let’s continue.”