Lauren Boebert loses re-election bid in solid red Colorado district

Rep.Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) lost her re-election bid Monday to Democratic opponent Eileen Laubacher. With more than 99% of ballots counted, Boebert received 47.9% of the vote compared to Laubacher’s 48.8%, according to the Associated Press, which has called the race for Laubacher.The district, which went for President Trump by 18 points in the 2024 election, was considered solid red heading into the midterms. Laubacher, who led the incumbent since last week, joined fellow congressional freshmen at the Capitol Monday for an orientation for incoming lawmakers. A political newcomer, Laubacher is a retired Navy rear admiral and former Republican.

She served as a member of former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council between 2022 and 2024. Boebert, first-elected in 2020, will leave Congress having served three terms in the House. The congresswoman is one of more than 30 incumbent Republican House lawmakers voted out of office amid the blue wave midterm, which saw Democrats seize control of both chambers of Congress. Boebert represented Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District between 2021 and 2025.She nearly lost her 2022 re-election bid, beating Democrat Adam Frisch by less than a percentage point. In 2024, Boebert ran in the state’s 4th Congressional District where she was re-elected by a comfortable 11 percentage point margin. A Boebert campaign lawyer alleged “unusual voting patterns” in the congresswoman’s race against Laubacher last week and said he was expecting it to head to a recount.  “Since election night, ballot returns have been trending in Congresswoman Boebert’s direction, consistently lowering the margin under one percentage point,” Scott Gessler, who is also Colorado’s former secretary of state, said in a statement Thursday.

“We are investigating some very unusual voting patterns and expect this election to head to a recount, one way or another.”Boebert, a longtime ally of Trump, was one of four House Republi...