It's an Uphill Battle for Boebert: 'She's Not One of Us'

You'd think Lauren Boebert's "almost-universal name recognition" would give her a boost in an 11-candidate GOP primary race for Colorado's 4th District, a Republican stronghold. But Boebert's fame "has become as much of a curse as a blessing as she deals with fallout from scandals" while trying to woo voters in a new district on the other side of the state from her current one, the Wall Street Journal reports. More:

• The switch: After nearly losing her seat to Democrat Adam Frisch in 2022, Boebert announced in December that she would seek election in Colorado's 4th District, to be vacated by the retiring Rep. Ken Buck, rather than face Frisch for a second time. She was then dubbed a carpetbagger.
• The district: Boebert and her sons have now settled in the 4th District town of Windsor, north of Denver, the Journal reports. Home to conservative Christian values, the district is largely agricultural but includes the wealthy suburbs of Denver and Fort Collins. About half of GOP voters hail from the center-right Douglas County, among the highest-income counties in the country.

• The outsider: Even with the move, candidates have been stressing Boebert's lack of connection to the area. "You don't need someone who's going to go from district to district because they can't win," Weld County Councilman Trent Leisy told voters at a recent event, "drawing an 'oooh' from the crowd," per the Journal. One voter told the outlet, "I will not vote for her. Period. She's not one of us."
• The scandals: The Journal speaks to several Republican voters who've grown tired of Boebert's drama, most recently in the form of a public spat with her ex-husband. One voter upset by a September incident in which Boebert was filmed vaping and groping her date in a Denver theater described the congresswoman as a "lowlife."
• The race: Though the Republican primary is still four months away, "a rational bettor will not make a sizable play on a Boebert victory," per Daily Kos. According to the New Republic, "nearly every Republican voter and lawmaker seems to loathe her intensely."

• The poll: A recent poll by the left-leaning research group The Mountaineer found just 17% of Colorado voters have a favorable view of Boebert. "Tying all Republicans to Boebert is a winning strategy for Democrats," the group's report concluded, per the Journal.
• The fight: Yet Boebert is adamant that the values she represents in the 3rd District are the same ones that matter to voters here, and that she's the right person for the job. "I have learned that closed mouths don't get fed," she tells the Journal. "In this movement, we can't afford to lose strong voices, and mine is certainly one of those."

(She failed to impress in her first primary debate.)