Even though anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) recently decided to run for re-election in a different district to increase her chances of success, her plan is already backfiring. In fact, she might not even end up on the ballot.
Boebert switched her re-election campaign from Colorado’s Third District (where many expected her to lose) to the state’s Fourth District. But for her name to appear on the June 25 Republican primary ballot, she needs to collect 1,500 signatures of district residents and win at least 10% of support from the delegates at the Republican party’s biennial convention, according to the left-leaning political website Crooks and Liars.
Even if Boebert collects the 1,500 required signatures by the March 19 deadline, she’ll still need to win over delegates in a district where she has been a relative stranger. Collecting signatures can be a costly process, and the signatures can be tossed out if they’re successfully challenged under a fraud claim.
Furthermore, even if she makes the ballot in the heavily Republican district, Boebert will be joining an already crowded field of seven other candidates, including state House Minority Leader Mike Lynch ® — and all of them will spend the primary trashing Boebert over her headline-grabbing misbehavior.
She had to change districts due to electability reasons, which isn’t a good look for her. She is also going against a state Republican in the primary with deep political connections.
I can see the primary going bad for her, especially if Trump is off the ballot.
I mean whoever she ends up running against in the primaries (or general) will have a field day with “she represented her district so poorly she had to change to ours”.
Let’s hope, but the 2016 election taught me a hard lesson about counting chickens before they’re hatched. I don’t think I’ll ever consider any outcome a sure thing again regardless of the odds.