Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who represents Colorado’s Third Congressional District, will not be running in the June 25 special election to complete the term of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) in the state’s Fourth District after he leaves Congress next week.
During a livestream on the online video platform Rumble on March 13, Ms. Boebert said she didn’t want to “further imperil the already very slim House Republican majority.”
Mr. Buck’s decision to resign early and leave office on March 22, as opposed to his initial plan to serve out his term before beginning his retirement, could present an obstacle to Ms. Boebert, who’s running in the Fourth District primary to replace Mr. Buck next year. The winner of the special election could have an incumbency advantage in November.
During her livestream, she claimed that the special election and early retirement are an attempt by Washington insiders to rig the Fourth District election and end her candidacy.
“It will result in a lame-duck congressman on day one and leave the Fourth District with no representation for more than three months,” she said. “I believe that this is selfish.”
Ms. Boebert appeared confident that she will win the Fourth District election.
“Put in your Ukraine-first candidate. I don’t really care,” she said. “It’s going to be a placeholder for six months, but at least there will be someone to help us keep our majority.”
Buck’s Surprise Announcement
Mr. Buck announced his resignation on March 12.“Today, I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week,” he said. “I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado and with my family.”
“Everywhere I go in Colorado, Dana, I hear that people are not happy with Trump and they’re not happy with Biden. ... We have to have better candidates, up and down the ballot, not just a president, but Senate, House, local offices. We’ve got to find better ways to elect candidates and bring America together.”
Mr. Buck’s departure will leave the GOP with just 218 House members and a two-seat majority.
When asked why he’s leaving now, given his party’s slim majority in the lower congressional chamber, he said that “it’s important to get in the mix of this election cycle and start talking about the issues that people recognize are such a problem right now.”
Mr. Buck has represented the state’s Fourth Congressional District since 2015.
He worked on the Iran-Contra investigation in the 1980s for then-Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.) and then became a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice before joining the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office. In 2004, he was elected for the first of three terms as the district attorney for Weld County.
“Americans are rightfully concerned about our nation’s future and are looking to Republicans in Washington for a course correction,” Mr. Buck said in his resignation video, going on to assert that the country is “on a collision course with reality.”
Mr. Buck then pointed the finger at members of his own party, whom he has been unafraid to go against. He was one of three Republicans to vote against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Last Year’s Retirement Announcement
In a Nov. 1, 2023, interview following his initial announcement that he wouldn’t seek reelection, Mr. Buck told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that one of the primary reasons was his frustration over the legislative body’s ability to get its job done.“I always have been disappointed with our inability in Congress to deal with major issues,” he said.
In his video announcement at the time, he said he believed Republicans had suffered a “significant departure from the enduring principles of conservatives.”
“We belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. ... The Republican Party of today, however, is ignoring self-evident truths about the rule of law.”
He said he believes the exceptionalism of the nation that he has served for more than three decades lies in “answers developed from the government, not the government.”
Over the past few years, Mr. Buck has been vocal in his criticism of Democrats, saying that the party engages in extremist strategies in order to polarize Americans. In addition, he has criticized the implementation of critical race theory in the military and has expressed concern about the fentanyl epidemic in the United States.
