Colorado's 4th District was always the Republican incumbent's race to win - and Ken Buck did just that, fending off a longshot challenge from moderate Democrat Karen McCormick to keep his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The district is made up of the Eastern Plains and some smaller Front Range cities, including Longmont, Greeley, Parker and Castle Rock. It has for the past several years had a heavy Republican lean. The district went for Buck in 2016 and 2014 by nearly 30 points after Cory Gardner left the seat to run successfully for U.S. Senate.
This year looks to be another Buck rout, as early Tuesday returns show him up by 50,000 votes over McCormick showing no signs of slowing down. Like many Democrats this year, McCormick outspent her Republican challenger - to no avail - by about $100,000, according to campaign finance tracking website OpenSecrets. While the race was nowhere near as expensive as some House races in the state, it saw much higher spending than previous races (Buck's opponent in 2016 only spent $80,000 on his campaign).
While McCormick ran on the idea she was "Passionate About Change," voters preferred Buck's image of "Conservative Leadership, Independent Voice" when they went to the polls Tuesday.
Buck, whose home is in Greeley, went to Princeton and then earned his law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1985. He worked for former Vice President Dick Cheney when he was a congressman from Wyoming, and then joined the Colorado U.S. Attorney office in 1990. He got his first taste of national politics when he ran and won for his current seat in Congress in 2014, according to his campaign website.
