Three Democrats in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District have enrolled as candidates vying to unseat freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert in 2022.
State Sen. Kerry Donovan, attorney Colin Wilhelm, and Marine veteran and businessman Gregg Smith have reportedly signed the federal paperwork required to challenge the incumbent. The candidates have suggested that Boebert’s response to the pandemic motivated their decisions to run.
“We need a complete recovery from COVID,” Donovan, a six-year member of the local office, told FOX 31. “We need to rebuild our economy stronger than it was before. And, of course, we have really important regional issues like drought,” adding that the fight over $1,400 stimulus checks in the COVID-19 relief bill is a “travesty” when the government “should be cutting monthly checks to those families, probably $1,200 a month.”
Smith further added that he’s running for office in response to the Jan. 6 riot, in which thousands of Trump supporters clashed with law enforcement and eventually breached the Capitol. Five people died during the chaos, including one Capitol Police officer, an Air Force veteran, and three others, due to medical emergencies.
Wilhelm, who has run for office in the past, said he’s seeking the seat to “figure out ways to get through this economic hardship that we’re dealing with [and] figure out ways to keep jobs we have but also create new jobs.”
The Colorado Republican Committee has already gone on the offensive against perceived front-runner Donovan.
“Kerry Donovan is simply a knockoff version of Elizabeth Warren, the candidate she endorsed for president. Donovan’s support for Warren and her far-Left policies would guarantee that hardworking families would see their taxes increase and ensure the Democrat’s anti-energy, job-destroying Green New Deal would finally become law. We look forward to beating Sen. Donovan in the general election, if she manages to get that far.”
Boebert is a staunch Second Amendment activist and owner of a gun-themed restaurant in her hometown. The congresswoman announced she would carry a gun around the Capitol grounds and caused a stir in the House when she set off a metal detector and refused to comply with directives from Capitol Police officers in late January. She faced a $5,000 fine for doing so and remained defiant on Twitter.
“If Members of Congress won’t take a stand for our Constitutional rights in DC, you can bet they won’t take a stand back at home either,” she tweeted after the incident. Boebert was granted a concealed carry permit in Washington, D.C., police said this week.
A member of the Natural Resources and Budget committees, she introduced bills to overturn federal mask mandates and block the rejoining of the Paris climate accord, two of President Biden’s first executive orders since he assumed office on Jan. 20.
Boebert first won her seat in 2020 after she defeated 10-year incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton during a bruising GOP primary held on June 30. Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is considered competitive, with a partisan voter index indicating that the district is only 6 percentage points more Republican than the country as a whole, according to the Cook Political Report.
