PUEBLO, Colo — Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert secured two crucial wins on Friday.
She won the Republican 4th Congressional District (CD4) assembly, guaranteeing that her name will be the first that voters see on the CD4 Republican primary ballot on June 25.
In addition, former state representative Ted Harvey, a candidate who is ideologically similar to Boebert, did not earn enough support to qualify for the ballot, ending his campaign.
“I promised you that I was not going to treat this as a coronation, as something that was owed to me,” Boebert said after winning the assembly.
The winner of the GOP primary will likely win the general election in the heavily Republican district. Current Republican Congressman Ken Buck announced in November that he would not seek reelection, and then stepped down last month.
Boebert has had quite the week. On Tuesday morning, she underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot.
“I said, I don’t care if I have to go to that assembly on a stretcher,” Boebert said during her nomination speech.
On Friday, she won the assembly with 40% support, and earned the top line on the CD4 Republican primary. She also kept Harvey, who could campaign farther to her right, off the ballot.
There are two ways to qualify for the Congressional primary ballot in Colorado.
- Earn 30% or more support at the Congressional District assembly.
- Collect 1,500 valid Republican voter signatures from CD4.
For candidates who go through the assembly process, they must earn 30% support to qualify for the ballot.
If they receive between 10%-30%, they are still eligible to have their petitions count, if they also submitted petitions.
If they receive less than 10% support, they are not eligible to be a candidate for the primary, even if they turned in signatures too.
“I am the only candidate in this race that is just going through the assembly process," Harvey said during his nomination speech. "I am not petitioning. Every candidate you’re going to see today, and some of those you won’t see today, every one of those petitioned on."
Harvey earned 25%, falling 24 votes short of qualifying for the primary ballot. He did not submit petition signatures.
Boebert did both the assembly and petitions. So did Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg and State Rep. Richard Holtorf.
Buck has not endorsed a candidate in the primary, but at Friday’s CD4 assembly, Lopez nominated Holtorf as a candidate.
“I know many of you are asking yourself, ‘Why is Greg nominating Richard?’" Lopez said "Let me tell you, Richard asked me to nominate him a few weeks ago. And I said, I would. And I’m a man of my word.'
Holtorf earned 15% and Sonnenberg earned 18%.
Both got enough support for their petitions to still count if they collected enough signatures.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is still reviewing their petitions.
In all, seven candidates turned in petitions to qualify by collecting signatures:
- Boebert – whose petitions no longer matter since she qualified through the assembly
- Deborah Flora – the former conservative talk radio host qualified with petitions and did not participate in the assembly
- Sonnenberg
- Holtorf
- State Rep. Mike Lynch
- Chris Phelen
- Peter Yu
- Floyd Trujillo
The GOP primary is June 25.
CD4 voters will see two races.
The first contest will be the primary, which Boebert and Flora have already qualified. This race will only be on the Republican ballots and Republican ballots requested by unaffiliated voters.
The second contest, which will appear on all ballots, will be the special election to pick the candidate that will finish Buck’s term until January.
Former Parker mayor Greg Lopez won the GOP vacancy nomination last week and will face Democratic candidate Trisha Calvarese. The winner on June 25 will complete Buck’s term.
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