Republican Lauren Boebert ousted in Colorado upset as Democrat flips Trump-won district
Democrat Eileen Laubacher has defeated three-term Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, one of the most striking upsets of the midterm elections. The result, called on Friday, flips a district that voted for President Donald Trump by 18 points in 2024 and makes Laubacher the first Democrat elected to Congress from the district in 18 years. Democrats now hold seven of Colorado's eight US House seats.
Laubacher, a retired two-star Navy rear admiral, Afghanistan war veteran and former National Security Council staffer, led Boebert 48.8 percent to 47.9 percent, with a Libertarian candidate taking about 3 percent. A former Republican, she ran on her national security credentials, fiscal conservatism and a moderate message, and outraised Boebert by more than ten to one through June. Traditionally conservative Douglas County proved pivotal: four years ago a Republican carried it by nearly 26,500 votes; this time Laubacher won it by roughly 22,000.
A six-year run ends
Boebert, a prominent conservative figure whose headline-grabbing conduct made her a household name well beyond her district, won her old 3rd District seat by just 546 votes in 2022 and switched to the more conservative 4th District in 2024 to protect her reelection chances. This year she emphasized tighter border security, tougher immigration enforcement, more domestic energy production and less federal spending, but the national Democratic wave proved stronger. She conceded by phone on Friday and wished Laubacher well, saying she stressed that the people of the district are more important than party politics, while also blaming the money spent against her and the Senate's failure to pass House-approved Republican bills. She told reporters she does not plan to run for the seat in 2028.
Speaking to supporters on election night, Laubacher said, in her words, that integrity matters, character matters and truth matters, and that public service should always be about what you can do for other people, not what you do for yourself. She has already attended the House's orientation program for new members. Boebert's attorney said in a statement last week that they were investigating what he called some very unusual voting patterns, without providing evidence.
Campaign, transition and earlier controversies
Laubacher is from Highlands Ranch and previously home-schooled her children. Her national security work included service in the Biden administration. In Douglas County she had nearly109,600 votes as of Friday afternoon, about22,056 more than Boebert. The last Democrat elected from the district, Betsy Markey in2008, lost two years later. Libertarian Douglas Mangeris received about3 percent.
Boebert promised an orderly, documented transfer of every open constituent case, including veterans' claims and Social Security issues. Laubacher had declared victory on November9, before the formal race call, and attended freshman orientation that day. After34 years in the Navy, she said she would put the mission ahead of politics and work with Trump, Republicans and Democrats. She identified lower costs, health care, rural communities, tackling corruption in both parties and accountability in Washington as her priorities.
Before entering politics, Boebert was a gun-rights campaigner and owned Shooters Grill in Rifle. She defeated incumbent Scott Tipton in the2020 Republican primary. Her once-close relationship with Trump later deteriorated. In November2025 she was one of four Republicans who joined Democrats to force a vote on releasing the Justice Department's Jeffrey Epstein files. She also backed Thomas Massie and campaigned with him in May after Trump threatened his seat over that campaign. Trump insulted Boebert and threatened to withdraw his endorsement, but did not do so.
Her congressional career also brought repeated disputes. In2021 she apologized after a video showed her suggesting fellow representative Ilhan Omar had been mistaken for a terrorist during an elevator ride. Omar said the described encounter never happened. In2022 Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech; their relationship later broke down publicly. In2023 Boebert and a companion were removed from a Denver performance of Beetlejuice after allegations of vaping, photographs and other disruptive conduct. She initially denied allegations about her behavior, then apologized after video circulated, saying she had acted inappropriately and referring to the strain of her divorce.
In September, activist David Wheeler of the American Muckrakers political committee filed a House ethics complaint alleging sexual relationships with three congressional staff members and a$200,000 payment to silence a former aide. These are allegations, not findings. Boebert denied them as entirely false and a politically timed attack. In October a judge granted her a temporary protection order requiring Wheeler to remain100 yards away and have no contact with her.