Republican Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton has been unseated by a QAnon conspiracy believer and restaurant owner who proudly violated the state’s COVID-19 guidelines.
Tipton’s surprising loss to Lauren Boebert on Colorado’s reliably conservative Western Slope after first being elected to Congress in 2010 makes him the fourth incumbent House lawmaker to be vanquished in a primary challenge this cycle. He’ll be the fifth if New York Democrat Eliot Engel loses his contest against public middle school teacher Jamaal Bowman.
Boebert, 33, is a mother-of-four who founded Shooters Grill, a restaurant that “earned national notoriety for staff that proudly open carry as they serve their customers,” her website states.
A diehard President Trump supporter, Boebert also subscribes to the web of QAnon far-right conspiracy theories that allege there’s a secret group of unelected “deep state” elites working to undermine the president and his administration.
Boebert is the third QAnon conspiracy theorist to experience success this election season.
Jo Rae Perkins won her Republican Oregon Senate primary, but will likely be defeated by sitting Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley in November. Marjorie Taylor Greene, too, faces an Aug. 11. runoff in Georgia’s northwest 14th Congressional District after finishing first in her June 9 primary with 41% of the vote, but falling short of the 50% threshold. Physician John Cowan came second in the GOP stronghold by 20 percentage points. Recent polls show Cowan within striking distance after a spell of unfavorable news coverage about Taylor Greene.
Boebert embarks on her general election against Democratic rival Diane Mitsch Bush, a former state representative, with a serious cash disadvantage. Boebert only has $13,000 cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
While Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District leans conservative on the Cook Partisan Voting Index, it could become competitive in the fall if Joe Biden turns out Democrats against Trump at the top of the ticket.
