(Headline USA) Republican primary candidate Mike Lynch didn’t sugarcoat the question to his opponent on the crammed debate stage, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who hopped into the race last month partly over fear of a loss in the district she currently represents.
“Could you give the definition of ‘carpetbagger?'” Lynch asked to low murmurs from the crowd at the first Republican primary debate in Fort Lupton, a community in Colorado’s 4th District.
It was expected. The candidate before Lynch had asked the same question, if more delicately put after she joined the packed primary race in an open “safe” district to avoid the risk of losing her seat in the general election.
The pejorative term—popularized during the post-Civil War “Reconstruction” era as fortune-seeking northerners looked to take advantage of new economic opportunities, refers to interlopers from outside a region who show up with no money or possessions except what they can carry with them in a traveling bag.
On stage, Boebert didn’t hesitate in her response to the attack.
“The crops may be different in Colorado’s 4th District but the values are not, and I’m a proven fighter for the values that you all believe in,” said Boebert, her voice forceful over the wide room in a recreation center.
While Colorado’s congressional representatives do not have to live in the district they represent, only the state, Boebert—on the heels of a particularly acrimonious divorce—relocating to Weld County in her new district, jokingly described by the moderator as “the most heavily Republican seat on the planet Earth.”
The corner of the Great Plains is a sweep of prairie grass and farms broken only by ranching towns where auctioneers chant the weight and price of cattle near every week.
Voters supported Trump by nearly 20 percentage points in 2020, more than double the margin in Boebert’s old district.
Boebert built herself into a household name with a style of pugilistic politics that has turned otherwise tame moments in Congress into slugfests, along with unwavering conservative stances and loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
However, her eastern Colorado district, which includes the resort town of Aspen, was redrawn more favorably for Democrats prior to the 2022 election, in what may have been a deliberate bid to neutralize one of Trump’s strongest political allies.
As a result of the redistricting and a coordinated effort by left-wing activists to smear and defame her—including baseless allegations that she had previously been a prostitute—Boebert narrowly won her last race by just 546 votes.
This time around, the same challenger, Adam Frisch, used Boebert’s notoriety among Democrats to pull in vast amounts of dark money from outside the district, raising more than three times the funding of the beleaguered GOP lightning rod.
With Republicans hanging onto control of the U.S. House by their fingertips, Boebert opted to pivot from the 3rd District to the solid-red 4th District, where Rep. Ken Buck’s retirement had left the race with no incumbent but with a crowded field of nine other GOP hopefuls.
Political experts generally agree Republicans have a better chance of holding onto the 3rd District without Boebert in the race.
The crowd at Thursday’s debate, a who’s who of local Republicans and voters, sat around tables where red popped among dark suits, including red solo cups and Boebert’s signature lipstick.
Jerry Sonnenberg, a popular former state senator with a tactically deployed baritone, was among the six of nine candidates on stage who raised their hands when asked if they had been arrested, to raucous applause.
Another, Rep. Richard Holtorf, the Republican whip in the Colorado House, has been most outspoken about Boebert’s move. Deborah Flora, a filmmaker and radio host, was the first to levy her question of switching districts at Boebert on stage.
State Rep. Lynch also exchanged barbs with Boebert. Lynch was Colorado’s House minority leader until he stepped down Wednesday after a 2022 arrest for drunken driving came to light, an issue that was largely met with forgiveness by fellow contestants.
Boebert was caught on video vaping and groping with a date in a Denver theater in September, but the embarrassing episode went unmentioned at the debate.
Still, the scandal may be hard to shake in Boebert’s new electoral stomping grounds, where voters hold tight to conservative Christian values some feel she transgressed.
The congresswoman must rely on her national name and convince skeptical voters that her voice is needed in Congress more than those of her homegrown opponents, some of whom have lived in the district their entire lives and represent parts of the area in Colorado’s Legislature.
Boebert focused on her experience in Congress as the key factor separating her from the candidates on stage.
“Everyone will talk like a Freedom Caucus member, but there is only one who governs as a Freedom Caucus member,” she said. “I am here to earn your support, earn your vote. This is not a coronation.”
Boebert’s primary rivals largely seemed hesitant to directly attack her onstage, which was reminiscent of the Republican presidential primary candidates who avoided criticism of Trump in early debates.
The debate also largely centered on national political issues including border security, abortion and fentanyl, on which Boebert could laud her sterling conservative voting record. Her opponents didn’t raise local issues they may have thought she was unprepared to represent.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
