GOP firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert has caught a political break as Colorado Republicans picked a placeholder candidate to run in a special election that had threatened to complicate her bid to switch districts and win a safer seat.
A GOP panel picked Greg Lopez, a well-known former local mayor with no plans to seek the seat permanently, to run in a unusual special election to fill the deep-red CO-04 seat for the last few months of the term for retiring Rep. Ken Buck.
The Lopez pick allows Boebert to compete on an even playing field with a crowded field of GOP rivals in a primary election to determine the party’s nominee in the November general election for the same Colorado Springs-based district.
Boebert, a staunch supporter of former President Trump, made no effort to hide her glee that the GOP panel picked Lopez over two of her stronger rivals in the primary.
“Greg stepped up with a servant heart and a leadership mindset with accountability being his driving force,” Boebert tweeted early Friday. “I look forward to serving the remainder of the 118th Congress with my soon to be colleague!”
Any candidate gunning to win the primary would have gotten a potential big leg up on her if they had won the party’s imprimatur in the special election, which is being held at the same time on June 25.
Two of Boebert’s Republican rivals in the primary, former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg and former state Sen. Ted Harvey, finished second and third in the tense beauty contest election on Thursday night.
The pair criticized the committee’s decision, but vowed to stay in the race against Boebert and others in the primary.
“They didn’t do it to support the candidate Greg Lopez, they did it to support their own candidates who weren’t here tonight. That’s not just putting us at risk, but it’s putting our nation at risk,” Harvey said.
Buck set the stage for the intra-party squabble when he decided not to run for reelection, pointing to the “bickering and nonsense” he said pervades the Capitol.
His stepping down spurred Boebert to announce plans to switch from her own swing district in western Colorado to run for Buck’s old seat.
A crowded field of fellow Republicans, mostly fellow strong supporters of Trump, also threw their hats in the ring, with some criticizing Boebert as a carpet-bagger who should stay home and run for reelection in her current district.
Buck then abruptly resigned, setting the stage for the special election. Some pundits suggested he may have calculated that the special election could give Boebert a political headache.
She decided not to run in the special election and instead concentrate on the primary for CO-04
Boebert has drawn criticism for a messy divorce and an embarrassing incident in which she was caught vaping and fondling her date in a family friendly Denver theater performance of Beetlejuice.
She’s also feuded with fellow far right-wing female lawmaker Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who insulted her with the “b-word” on the floor of the House of Representatives.
