Colorado — 3rd District

After leaving the GOP to briefly register as unaffiliated before launching her run as a Democratic congressional candidate, Eileen Laubacher secured a path to the general election against Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, the reddest in the state.

After first winning election to Congress in 2020, Boebert made a name for herself as a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and one that fights back on Capitol Hill. She was first elected to the Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District and stood out in Washington as a working class gun rights activist who brought a confrontational style to her public service.

In a debate on Monday, Boebert highlighted her record in Congress, saying “you know me” and detailed how she’s delivered for farmers and ranchers in the district’s rural areas, secured water projects and worked across the aisle, particularly with Colorado’s two Democratic senators and four members in the House.

Laubacher hopes that voters have grown tired of the “cloud of chaos” that follows Boebert and opt to put a no-nonsense congresswoman in the seat. But she not only has to convince Republicans to vote for a Democrat, she also has to convince Democrats she’s really one of them.

Laubacher, who served in the U.S. Navy for over 30 years and retired with the rank of rear admiral, is a first-time candidate. She faced questions Monday about being a longtime Republican, then briefly an unaffiliated voter, before becoming a Democrat.

Those questions became pointed as Boebert and 9News moderator Kyle Clark sought to clarify if Laubacher changed her affiliation solely to launch a campaign.

Laubacher has maintained that she changed her party affiliation because she no longer felt represented by the Republican Party over things that mattered to her like small government and reining in federal spending.

Still, in an interview with the Deseret News, Laubacher said she became a Democrat because running as an independent doesn’t make sense.

“I think my view of the party has changed dramatically, and the things that they’ve said that they stand for are not, I believe, the things that they actually stand for,” she said. “And that is why I became an unaffiliated voter, and I did become a Democrat to run because … running as an independent just generally doesn’t work, right? This is the United States of America. We have a two-party system.”

“I think in the Democratic Party, I find people, I find a party that agrees with my views of staying out of people’s personal lives, and in some ways a small government and being people-focused and that’s important to me,” Laubacher continued.

Laubacher said she decided to launch her bid for Congress because she didn’t believe that Boebert was serving the people of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. She pitched herself as an advocate for affordability and said her years of service in the Navy make her well-equipped to work across party lines.

In 2009, she was deployed to Afghanistan. Laubacher later served as a defense attaché for three years in India and then was asked by the Biden administration to work a senior-level position at the National Security Council. That experience, plus homeschooling five children, helped prepare her for working across the aisle in Congress if she’s elected, she said.

Laubacher said she’s been able to earn the endorsement of lifelong Republicans after talking with them about her values. In a district with busy suburbs and vast rural ranches, Laubacher said all voters are concerned about affordability. They deserve someone who wants to hit those challenges “head on,” Laubacher said, noting that Boebert was one of 32 Republicans to vote against a bipartisan affordable housing bill.

“If we stopped allowing ourselves to get distracted by loud, divisive voices on the fringes, and focus instead on the fact that we are all good people who care about our communities and care about one another and are hardworking, and love our families, we could get a lot further in this world and we would be in a much better place,” she added.

While Laubacher and Boebert are split over several issues, there’s something they share: they both moved into the 4th district relatively recently.

Laubacher faced heat on Monday night, as she was asked what her message would be to voters about her changing her party affiliation and address before launching a campaign. She argued that she raised her five children in a separate congressional district, but moved only 10 miles to downsize once her kids were grown and it happened to be in the district.

Boebert, too, is new to Colorado’s 4th District. After winning her 2020 campaign, Boebert narrowly defeated her Democratic opponent Adam Frisch in her 2022 race in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. In 2023, she announced she would run in the 4th District since she had a better chance of winning after facing push back over a scandal.

Boebert benefits from both her name recognition and being the incumbent candidate in a historically conservative district, but she still might face a close contest against Laubacher come November.

The district includes suburbs in Douglas County that are some of the most affluent in the country and the state’s rural Eastern Plains that experience higher rates of economic hardship. Per Cook Political Report, it’s listed as a safe Republican seat and is the most conservative district in Colorado.

Boebert was asked at the debate Monday about her track record in Congress and how over the last two years there has been “a lot less” scandal compared to the start of her career. She admitted that she arrived in Washington inexperienced on how the policy side of the job worked but has since “learned the job,” though she did not address why she has been less “loud” and “angry” compared to her earlier behavior.

In 2023, Boebert was asked to leave a Denver showing of the play “Beetlejuice” for vaping, singing loudly, taking flash photography and groping her date.

Her family has also drawn scrutiny after her ex-husband was arrested in 2024 following a physical altercation. Domestic violence allegations against Boebert were later dropped, and her oldest son has faced criminal changes. Most recently, Boebert denied allegations and secured a restraining order over a House Ethics complaint alleging sexual relationships with three current or former staff members.

Still, Boebert is confident that she will win her reelection bid. She said she still believes in the message that she and her now ex-husband had when she first decided to run.

“We wanted to secure our children’s future and our now-grandchild’s future, and that’s still the mission,” she said in an interview with the Deseret News. “There’s, you know, ups and downs along the way, and some of those challenges sometimes, you know, can get the better of relationships.”

“I still believe in the mission that I started with, and so I don’t have any regrets with being here, certainly, after being able to produce so many great results for Colorado. I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done,” Boebert added. “It can be tough, and it’s tougher when people lie about you and drive your family into things unnecessarily, but I have some pretty tough skin and, you know, it’d be nice to not have to prove it as often.”

Boebert said she remains proud of the work she’s done over the last two years and hopes voters will note that when casting ballots. As for her challenger, it’s nothing new, she said.

“I think when it comes to a first-time candidate raising millions of dollars … it’s not the first time that’s happened. The Democrats always raise millions of dollars against me,” she said. “I don’t think that that’s going to determine the outcome of this race.”

Election Day will ultimately serve as a test of whether voter fatigue with Boebert can bridge a deep partisan divide and benefit Laubacher.

For Republicans in the district who disagree with Boebert’s record or style, November presents a hard choice: st