This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
In Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, Democrat Eileen Laubacher and Libertarian Douglas Mangeris are challenging sitting GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, who is running for a fourth term in Congress.
The last time a Democrat was elected to represent the district was in 2008, and she was voted out after one term.
The 4th Congressional District is considered the state’s reddest seat. When the lines were drawn in 2021, Republicans had, on average, a 25-point advantage. It covers the Eastern Plains, as well as parts of the Front Range counties of Douglas, Adams, Arapahoe, Larimer and Weld.
The population center of the district is Douglas County, a Republican stronghold in the state, but one that has slowly been trending toward purple.
Democrats added the district to their ‘in-play’ seats list, meaning they targeted the seat for a Democratic win, albeit a stretch.
Given the economic headwinds Republicans have faced going into the midterm elections, especially with diesel prices and tariffs impacting rural voters, Democrats were unwilling to write-off the district altogether. The party was also helped by a strong candidate, with equally strong fundraising.
Laubacher is a retired Navy rear admiral and is in the mold of moderate Democratic candidates with national security backgrounds who have won elections across the country during Trump’s tenure, including Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, who won his seat in 2018.
During the candidates only debate in October, Boebert pitched herself as a lawmaker who can deliver results.
“Some may say that I get loud, but when I get loud that means that Lamar is heard, Burlington is heard, Holyoke is heard. And results are delivered on your behalf,” Boebert said.
Laubacher’s message to voters was that she was called to serve again after seeing the chaos in Washington, D.C.
“I’m someone who understands that we need to push back on both parties and the extreme edges of them, and find ways to work together,“ Laubacher said.
Lauren Boebert
Boebert burst onto the political scene in Colorado in 2020 when she surprised the political establishment by defeating incumbent GOP Rep. Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District, that encompasses Western and Southern Colorado.
Her tumultuous tenure that started with the January 6th riot at the Capitol, nearly cost her her seat in a district that leans red. She won reelection by only 546 votes in 2022.
The end of her marriage, a viral video of a date in which she was asked to leave the Denver Performing Arts presentation of Beetlejuice in 2023, coupled with a serious primary challenger, led her move across the state from Rifle to Windsor to run in the 4th Congressional District seat.
The move worked. She cleared a wide primary field and won, although by a far smaller margin than her predecessors.
Her close electoral call also led to changes in how Boebert approached her legislative work. She embraced earmarks, which she had previously described as corrupt, to bring money to her district. She also started working across the aisle, including with Colorado’s Democratic senators, to get bills across the finish line.
One of Boebert’s bills passed on its own, the CONVEY Act, a land transfer bill that was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, She had other bills included in larger packages that became law.
Boebert also showed a willingness to stand up to her party. She signed a discharge petition on a bill to release the Epstein files, which forced a floor vote. She was called to the White House Situation Room in an effort to have her take her name off the petition, which she refused to do. She also campaigned for her friend and colleague Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who lost his primary.
As a result, Trump’s first veto of his second term was a Boebert bill. This past spring he said on social media he was open to a primary challenger to Boebert, whom he described at different times as a “carpet bagger,” “weak-minded” and “dumb.”
Eileen Laubacher
Laubacher’s background made her an ideal Democratic candidate for the district.
Aside from her decades of military and public service, she is a married mother of five, who homeschooled some of her children. She is a former registered Republican who first became unaffiliated before registering as a Democrat, right before deciding to run for Congress.
In their lone debate, Boebert leveled several accusations against Laubacher, many without any proof, from being responsible for the floating Gaza pier to working as a foreign agent for Saudi Arabia to being involved in the cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop.
Laubacher disputed each one. She said she worked on South Asia while at Biden’s National Security Council, not on Gaza. Laubacher said she did some consulting work for two companies after retiring from the Navy, one focused on Maui rebuilding and the other that never got off the ground She said neither involved Saudi Arabia. She added she never met with former CIA Director Michael Hayden, but did work with a man of the same name who worked on South Asia issues.
While Laubacher did have a couple of ads that highlighted some of the controversies swirling around Boebert during her time in office, she focused her campaign on listening to all corners of the district, especially rural areas where Democrats have not fared well electorally, and taking that information to represent them in Congress.
She criticized Boebert for her continued support of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill, which includes Medicaid cuts that Laubacher says are expected to hurt rural hospitals. Laubacher also criticized Trump’s broad tariff policies and his decision to launch a war against Iran, which she said has led to increased costs for many voters, and faulted Boebert for not voting to stop either.
Laubacher also pointed to past Boebert votes against veterans bills, including the PACT Act, and a housing reform package, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing, which aims to increase the housing supply and bring down costs.
