Meet Lauren Boebert’s opponents: The contest for her CO congressional district is a doozy

15 March 2024

WINDSOR, Colo. — The crowded field for the Republican congressional nomination in Colorado’s 4th District offers voters candidate resumes replete with racism, arrest records and, for at least one hopeful, a devotion to Donald Trump that seemingly eclipses Trump’s love for himself.

And that’s without even considering the non-stop drama and in-your-face partisan politics of the race’s best-known candidate: the recently transplanted Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who currently represents a district on the other side of the state.

Amid political peril and a messy divorce, Boebert moving from western Colorado to jumpstart her political career and restart her life has brought national attention to the state’s staunchly conservative eastern flank.

It’s also introduced even more drama to an already chaotic primary. During a debate in January, for example, six of the nine candidates present raised their hand when asked if they had ever been arrested by law enforcement. (Boebert is among the field’s arrestees.)

None of the candidates who provided contact information on their website returned Raw Story’s request for comment.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who currently represents the district, announced earlier this week that he's resigning by the end of next week.

This means that this race will get complicated quickly, first entailing a vacancy election to quickly fill the rest of Buck's term, and then, a separate 2024 primary and general election. Colorado's governor sets the date for the vacancy election, but, according to state law, it can't be within 90 days of a general election.

Here’s a rundown of the colorful cast of non-Boebert candidates running in the June 25 Republican primary ahead of the November 5 general election, when the GOP winner will face one of several Democrats running:

Mike Lynch: ‘I have a gun’

Lynch was arrested for drunk driving in September 2022 — allegedly going 90 mph and carrying a gun — but he chose not to disclose the incident before being elected Republican leader of the state’s House of Representatives.

He pleaded guilty to driving while ability impaired, a lesser charge, and received 18 months of probation.

The incident did not come to light until this year, after Lynch announced he was running for Congress. Soon after, he stepped down from his leadership position in the Colorado House.

After being pulled over, Lynch got out of the car while still carrying a gun. According to the Denver Post, the arrest report said the officer asked Lynch about a knife he had in a pocket.

Lynch reached for his other pocket and said, “I have a gun in this pocket, too.”

“You have a gun? Stop that,” said the patrolman, who grabbed Lynch’s hand. “We’re not going to reach for guns when we’re out here …”

The Denver Post posted an editorial titled, “We’ve lost confidence in Rep. Mike Lynch too.”

“Across America, we have seen the bar of expectations lowering for public leaders,” the editorial said. “It’s not too much to ask that elected officials follow the very laws they are charged with writing and enforcing.”

Richard Holtorf: racist rhetoric

In 2021, Holtorf referred to a colleague as “Buckwheat” on the floor of the state House of Representatives — an apparent reference to the mischief-making Black character from “The Little Rascals” films.

Holtorf defending the term as being “endearing.”

At a congressional primary debate in January, Holtorf, a member of the state House of Representatives, made this racist comment:

“For all of those fighting age, Middle Eastern males who have come to this country, they need to be immediately deported back to the Middle East — those terrorist countries. Full stop!”

Far from walking it back later, he included it in a video montage of his debate comments.

In 2022, Holtorf voted in favor of a resolution supporting a debunked conspiracy theory involving the 2020 election. The resolution named Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and said its voting systems “are built in China, using Chinese labor” and “are not secure in any national security sense of the word.”

Earlier this year, Holtorf, a staunch anti-abortion legislator, said he once paid for a girlfriend’s abortion and that it allowed her to “live her best life.” He later issued long statements walking back what he said.

Holtorf said he’s been arrested twice for fighting “because somebody needed a little attitude adjustment.”

“I told my dad both times that I was winning until the cops showed up,” he added.

Trent Leisy: a Trump fetish

On social media, Leisy is about as Trump-y as it gets. But he didn't get Trump's endorsement --- Boebert did --- and earlier this week he filed to run for a state House seat instead. Before then, Leisy went full MAGA in his campaign for congress.

“The worst attack on American soil happened via voting machines on November 3rd, 2020,” he posted, making no mention of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, or the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

A post on Facebook, showed Leisy next to Trump while wearing a t-shirt with Trump’s image above the words, “SEXIEST MAN ALIVE.” Leisy sells the merchandise.

“I not only endorse President Trump, but love him as well!” Leisy writes in the post.

Leisy’s love for, and dedication to Trump extends to his … snowmen.

On his personal and campaign Facebook pages, Leisy refers to Trump repeatedly as “Rightful President Trump.”

Leisy posted last November that if he’s elected to Congress he would “introduce legislation to financially compensate each of the families of the J6 prisoners harmed by the Police State.”

While running for a school board position in 2021, the Greeley Tribune reported that Leisy pleaded guilty to harassment in 2017 after being charged with a misdemeanor count of knowingly and recklessly causing bodily injury against a child. He was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation.

Now a councilman in Weld County, Leisy called for members of the Colorado Supreme Court to be charged with treason for removing Donald Trump from the state’s ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding federal office. (The Supreme Court recently overturned the Colorado court’s ruling.)

Peter Yu: no Asian racism?

The businessman said during his U.S. Senate campaign in 2021, referring to the Stop Asian Hate movement: “The racism thing? It’s a lie.”

Amid criticism, Yu partially walked back the statement.

Floyd Trujillo: drill, doggy, drill

A veteran of the oil and gas industry, Trujillo writes books about the virtue and importance of fossil fuels.

“The ABCs of Fossil Fuels” introduces children to a dog named Dexter, who “shows us the benefits of oil and gas and how different life would be without them.”

“I’m sickened by the Biden Administration’s war on energy,” Trujillo says on his campaign website. “... I was proud to serve as President Trump’s Hispanic Co-Chair in Colorado and will provide the reinforcements he needs in Washington on Day One.”

Deborah Flora: mother knows best

A filmmaker, syndicated radio host and activist, Flora founded Parents United America, a group opposing what it sees as grave threats to parental authority in American society.

“We will not allow any institution, elected official, administrator, or cultural trend to push us out of our rightful role as THE parents to OUR children,” it says on the Parents United America website.

Flora opposes teachers unions and is an advocate for tax money going to private schools.

She has said “we are at a crossroads between Marxism and freedom.”

Chris Phelen: Boebert basher

A former congressional aide, Phelen did not respond to Raw Story’s request for details about his arrest, which he disclosed at the debate by raising his hand.

Phelen ripped Boebert during a debate last month.

“Are you sick and tired of people that are coming to Congress just to get more social media hits?” Chris Phelen reportedly asked the crowd.

“I am — and that’s what I think that someone up on this stage is doing.”

Jerry Sonnenberg: fast company

Sonnenberg, who won a straw poll after the first debate of the primary and is seen as a top contender to win, said he was arrested at age 19 when he was speeding and spent the night in jail because he didn’t have the money to bail himself out.

A former member of the state House and Senate, Sonnenberg isn’t a flame-thrower. In this group, he comes off as the adult in the room.

“I'm not going to bash any of them," he said of his opponents after the first debate.

In a Washington Post story, Sonnenberg said, “I liken myself to a workhorse rather than a show horse.”

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