Lauren Boebert, a follower of the Make America Great Again movement and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, appeared on stage with Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. in Loveland on Thursday as the GOP primary election for the 4th Congressional District gets closer.
Boebert is currently serving as a member of Congress, but not in District 4, an area that includes the firmly conservative eastern plains region of the state, with a small part extending between Fort Collins and Greeley to encompass Loveland.
Instead, Boebert was initially elected in 2021 to represent District 3, covering the large area of the western and southern parts of the state, including both Grand Junction and Pueblo.
Shortly after narrowly defeating challenger Adam Frisch, a former member of the Aspen City Council and a Democrat, Boebert announced that she would not seek reelection in her district, but rather in District 4 on the other side of the state.
Before this election, the district was represented by Ken Buck, who declared last year that he would not run again, and officially resigned from his position in March, pointing to the party’s belief that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats and the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Boebert, often labeled as a conservative agitator who frequently garnered national attention for both her right wing views on issues like gun rights, religion, abortion and gender, as well as for her personal life, criticized “RINOs,” or “Republicans in Name Only,” during her remarks on Thursday at Rez.Church in east Loveland. She argued that a large portion of elected Republicans in Congress were not fully committed to conservative values.
“I quickly learned that I’m actually a professional RINO hunter,” she said to cheers from the audience. “I defeated a five-term incumbent in my first election because he didn’t do what he promised voters he would do for them. And just recently, right here in CD4, well I just caught me a Buck. I think it’s RINO hunting season.”
Buck announced that he would not run for reelection before Boebert announced her district switch.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. focused his comments on the ongoing legal actions against his father, which he said were unfair and politically motivated, as well as his connection to Colorado. He resided in Aspen around the turn of the century, a place that he noted is shifting towards the right.
“I hadn’t seen that in so long,” Trump Jr. said. “Which gives me some hope actually, that it’s not over. People understand what’s happening, people are waking up to the craziness that’s out there right now.”
