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   From: trump-wins@beat.biden   
      
   WINDSOR — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert decisively won the six-way Republican   
   primary Tuesday night in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, making her   
   reelection to Congress highly likely despite nearly two years of   
   embarrassing personal and political turmoil.   
      
   The race was called by The Associated Press at 7:21 p.m., shortly after   
   polls closed at 7 p.m., when Boebert had 43% of the vote. She kept that   
   share through the night.   
      
   None of Boebert’s five Republican primary opponents were coming close to   
   beating her. At 11:15 p.m., former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg was in a   
   distant second with 15% of the vote. He called Boebert to concede.   
      
   Supporters at Boebert’s watch party at a Windsor restaurant cheered loudly   
   when Fox News, being broadcast on large TVs at the venue, announced   
   Boebert’s victory. The congresswoman, wearing a MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN   
   hat signed by Donald Trump and a pair of the former president’s gold,   
   branded sneakers, gave her mother a big hug.   
      
   Relief washed across her face.   
      
   “We know we are going to have a landslide victory on Nov. 5 in CD4,” she   
   said as she declared victory in the primary.   
      
   Boebert vowed to unite Republicans, including her primary opponents,   
   around her general election campaign.   
      
   Because of how favorable the 4th District is to Republicans, Boebert is   
   the overwhelming favorite to win in November. Former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a   
   Republican, won his last two elections in the GOP stronghold, which   
   includes Douglas County and Loveland and sweeps across the Eastern Plains,   
   by a whopping 23 percentage points each.   
      
   Another sign the district is unlikely to back a Democrat over Boebert:   
   Republican Greg Lopez on Tuesday easily won the special election in the   
   district to serve out the remainder of Buck’s term. (The congressman   
   resigned on March 22.) Lopez’s lead was 23 percentage points as of 11:45   
   p.m.   
      
   The large primary field split the anti-Boebert vote, and none among the   
   group could match Boebert’s fundraising ability and name recognition among   
   voters. As a result, Boebert dominated the airwaves while her opponents   
   fumbled to find a breakthrough message. The five seemed to struggle to   
   decide if they should attack Boebert or each other or rise above the   
   drama.   
      
   “We can do better than Lauren Boebert,” Sonnenberg, who is now a Logan   
   County commissioner, said in the lone TV ad he could afford to air. “I   
   will not embarrass you with scandals.”   
      
   Sonnenberg had initially promised not to attack his opponents during his   
   campaign, but ditched that plan in the home stretch as Boebert appeared to   
   be running away with the race.   
      
   “Boebert won because there was such a crowded primary and she has   
   universal name ID,” said former state Sen. Greg Brophy, a Republican who   
   was supporting Sonnenberg. “Had Boebert had a head to head with almost any   
   of the other five, she would have lost.”   
      
   Lori Weigel, a Republican pollster in Colorado, agreed that the large   
   primary field and Boebert’s name ID played to her advantage. But Weigel   
   said Boebert’s opponents also struggled against her star power.   
      
   “I think we are in a topsy-turvy world where it’s an attention economy,”   
   she said. “As we’ve seen at the presidential level, it’s hard to stop an   
   attention-demanding candidate. You can have great policy ideas, but we   
   live in a world where drama demands attention.”   
      
   In the end, the 4th District proved a soft landing spot for what seemed   
   like Boebert’s freefall after her 546-vote win in 2022 over Democrat Adam   
   Frisch in the 3rd Congressional District, which is mostly on the other   
   side of the state.   
      
   After narrowly winning reelection two years ago, Boebert divorced her   
   husband, Jayson, and tried to moderate her pistol-packing, burn-it-down   
   image. That fell apart after she was ejected in September from a   
   performance of the musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver after vaping and   
   groping with a male companion. Her behavior, which she initially lied   
   about, was captured by surveillance cameras and rebroadcast across the   
   country. She became a national punchline.   
      
   In December, with her reelection campaign in the 3rd District still   
   limping from the Beetlejuice drama and her political prospects shaky,   
   Buck’s decision to leave Congress offered an off-ramp. She switched her   
   reelection campaign to run in the more Republican 4th District instead,   
   shocking the political world with her unorthodox decision.   
      
   Boebert moved with her youngest children to Windsor from Rifle at the   
   beginning of the year and told voters that while the crops were different   
   where she came from, the values were the same. She was endorsed by Trump   
   and House Speaker Mike Johnson.   
      
   While Boebert’s carpetbagging was met with condemnation and skepticism   
   from power players in the 4th District, voters — based on Tuesday’s   
   results — clearly felt differently.   
      
   Dan Stephen, who lives in Elbert County and is the manager at Franktown   
   Firearms Shooting Center, told The Colorado Sun after the congresswoman   
   visited the store in late February that he didn’t mind that she had   
   recently moved into the district.   
      
   “Everything I’ve seen with her and read about her — I just think she’s a   
   strong force,” he said. “It’s something that we need. She seems like just   
   a very real person. It’s not really even a competition in my mind.”   
      
   He added: “It’s time for change across the board. I think that she’s going   
   to be a very welcome change to the district.”   
      
   As of 11:15 p.m., heres how Boebert’s other Republican opponents in the   
   4th District primary were faring:   
      
   Conservative commentator Deborah Flora — 14%   
   State Rep. Richard Holtorf — 11%   
   State Rep. Mike Lynch — 11%   
   Mortgage broker Peter Yu — 7%   
   Boebert told reporters that she was nervous heading into the weekend   
   before Election Day.   
      
   “I had those thoughts of ‘Did I miss something? Is there something that   
   I’m not seeing. Is there someone I didn’t reach, didn’t talk to, didn’t   
   spend enough time with?'” Boebert said Tuesday night.   
      
   Ultimately, Boebert said, she felt she and her team put in the work to   
   win.   
      
   “I came into this knowing that I was going to have to work,” she said of   
   her district switch.   
      
   The AP called the three-way Democratic primary in the 4th District for   
   Trisha Calvarese, a former speechwriter and congressional staffer, at   
   11:33 p.m.   
      
   Calvarese said she was “incredibly proud to be a daughter of the   
   district.”   
      
   “I know personally the economic challenges that we face. Everyone wants to   
   know what are you going to do for my family — this is my family now,” she   
   said.   
      
   At the time the race was called, Calvarese was leading with 45% of the   
   vote. In second was Marine veteran Ike McCorkle, who lost to Buck in 2020   
   and 2022, with 41% of the vote. In a distant third and with no chance of   
   catching up was John Padora, a manufacturing engineer, with 13% of the   
   vote.   
      
   Calvarese lost by a wide margin to Lopez in the 4th District special   
   election Tuesday to serve out Buck’s term in Congress.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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