Laubacher Defeats Boebert in Colorado House Race

Democrat Eileen Laubacher defeated Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a longtime Republican stronghold, in a major upset called by the Associated Press after final ballots were counted. Laubacher, a former Republican and retired Navy rear admiral with 34 years of service, won 48.8% to Boebert’s roughly 47.9%, a margin of about 0.9 percentage points that was outside the state’s automatic recount threshold. She campaigned on affordability, health care and rural communities, drawing on her national security experience; her victory came amid a broader Democratic wave that flipped more than 40 Republican-held districts nationally and several Colorado seats. Boebert’s loss ends her six years in Congress; she had moved from Colorado’s 3rd District to the heavily Republican 4th ahead of the 2024 election. Boebert’s campaign lawyer raised the possibility of a recount and cited unspecified unusual voting patterns without providing evidence.