No One Wants to Vote for Lauren Boebert

Welcome back to Barf Bag. 

In December, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) announced she’d be running for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, instead of the 3rd, which she currently represents. She, of course, blamed the “Hollywood elites” for forcing her to run in a district on the other side of the state, but the real reason is that she nearly lost to Democrat Adam Frisch in 2022 and only managed to keep her seat by 546 votes. (She later specifically blamed her district decision on Barbra Streisand and Ryan Reynolds, since they both donated to Frisch’s campaign.) Colorado’s 4th is much more conservative, thereby ensuring Boebert keeps her seat—well, a seat—in the House. At least, that’s what Boebert thought would happen. But Republicans in Colorado’s 4th appear to have other ideas.

Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Findell traveled to Elbert County to speak with GOP voters and while some said yes, they’re planning on voting for her, the overall sentiment seemed to be, “Who the fuck does she think she is?”

“I will not vote for her. Period,” Chris Ware, a retired medical contractor, said.

A January straw poll placed Boebert 5th in the 11-person race for Rep. Ken Buck‘s seat, who’s retiring partly because there are so many election deniers in his party. Her current campaign promises, according to WSJ, include impeaching and passing a bill she calls “Build the Wall, Deport Them All.”

“On Facebook she’s not been well received by Republicans,” another GOP voter told the outlet. “It’s the shenanigans and the drama and moving districts.” The WSJ piece didn’t elaborate on what that voter meant by “shenanigans” but it’s safe to assume she’s in part talking about Boebert getting kicked out of the audience at a Beetlejuice production for vaping and generally being an asshole. (Security video also showed the congresswoman getting very handsy with her date’s upper thigh region.)

“I don’t appreciate, as a Christian, people saying they’re Christian to get your vote and then turning out to be a lowlife, and now I just kind of think of her as a lowlife,” another GOP voter said.

In January, Boebert was heavily mocked after a local debate in which she failed (or refused) to define “carpetbagger,” a Civil War-era term for someone who moves somewhere else for financial or political gain. At the same debate, all nine of the candidates in attendance said they definitely wouldn’t vote for Boebert if they weren’t running themselves. (No judgment about anyone’s consensual sexual preferences, but does Boebert have a humiliation kink?)

Of course, this is still a GOP primary race, so while it’s fun to laugh at Boebert being rejected by her new district, the other candidates aren’t super great. Among the frontrunners is state Rep. Mike Lynch, who was forced to step down as the state’s House minority leader in January after he got a DUI and then tried to hide it from his colleagues. Then there’s conservative radio host Deborah Flora, one of those right-wing talking heads who loves to spew hateful nonsense about critical race theory and wants to eliminate the Department of Education, and Rep. Richard Holtorf, a 2020 election denier who said Rep. Buck “failed to push for the Trump agenda.”

To all that I have to say: Best of luck to absolutely no one.

• Donald Trump seems to believe there’s a nuclear bomb big enough to reach South Carolina if it’s dropped on New York. [Newsweek]
• Nobody went to CPAC this year. [Twitter]
• Meghan McCain tweeted “NO PEACE, BITCH!” at Kari Lake because I guess they’re fighting over Arizona’s throne or something. [The Independent]
• Fun headline: “Mike Johnson invoked God in a GOP presentation on keeping the majority. It didn’t land well.” [Politico]
• Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville seemingly has no idea what’s happening with IVF in his state. But he says he’ll read the bill! (There is no bill.)  [HuffPost]
• Speaking of Alabama basically banning IVF, after saying that she considers embryos to be “babies,” Nikki Haley very quickly tried to walk back those comments on Thursday. [New Republic]
• Marjorie Taylor Greene says conservative Christian women need to “not tempt your Christian brothers and cause them to stumble.” I wish people would stop voting for her. [Twitter]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag.