Boebert gets lucky as GOP picks Ken Buck replacement

A panel of Colorado Republicans selected former Mayor Greg Lopez to be their candidate and likely replacement for the remainder of former Rep. Ken Buck‘s term, a decision that could buoy Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) as she eyes his House seat.

On Thursday night, the Republican panel in Colorado‘s 4th Congressional District selected Lopez, former mayor of Parker, Colorado, to run in the June 25 special election after Buck departed from Congress early on March 22. His resignation narrowed the GOP majority in the House even further to 218-213.

Given that Colorado’s 4th District is a solid red seat, Lopez will likely win on June 25 and serve out the remainder of Buck’s term through the new year. However, Lopez plans to step down after the general election winner is sworn into office in January 2025, meaning Boebert will not need to face an incumbent as she runs against seven GOP primary candidates this summer.

Buck had announced in November last year that he would not seek reelection in 2024, causing an outpouring of Republican candidates filing to replace him, including Boebert. The congresswoman opted not to run for reelection to her seat in the 3rd District, where she would have faced a competitive Democratic opponent.

Adam Frisch, whom Boebert narrowly defeated in 2022, opted to run against Boebert again in 2024, but numbers from polling and fundraising signaled Frisch was in a better position to defeat her this cycle.

Boebert decided to switch districts and run for Buck’s seat but declined to compete in the special election for the remainder of his term. If she had decided to run for the 4th District’s special election and won, she would have needed to resign her seat in the 3rd District, which would have created a vacancy and perhaps led to a Democratic pickup.

Boebert and seven other GOP candidates will run in the full-term primary, also on June 25. Running against her are Deborah Flora, Ted Harvey, Richard Holtorf, Mike Lynch, Chris Phelen, Justin Schreiber, Jerry Sonnenberg, and Peter Yu.

If any of them had been selected to run in the special election and won, it would have set up a member versus member fight that would have made it more difficult for Boebert to win. The panel had narrowed down the special election contest to Sonnenberg and Lopez.

Following Buck’s early retirement, Boebert had slammed the decision as a “swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election I’m winning by 25 points.” In a letter to the panel delegates ahead of the meeting, Boebert wrote that they should select a placeholder so as not to “influence the regular primary election in a way that would taint the entire process and give this candidate an unfair leg up,” according to the Associated Press.

Boebert praised Lopez’s selection in a post to X.

“Congratulations to Greg Lopez, who will be a strong Congressman finishing out the remainder of Ken BUCKLE’S term! Greg stepped up with a servant heart and a leadership mindset with accountability being his driving force,” Boebert wrote.

“I will continue to aggressively campaign throughout the District to earn even more support from voters and look forward to winning the primary on June 25th, the general on November 5th, and honorably representing the 4th District in the 119th Congress,” the congresswoman continued.

Harvey, among other primary opponents, was angered by Boebert’s letter and Lopez’s subsequent selection.

“They didn’t do it to support the candidate Greg Lopez, they did it to support their own candidates who weren’t here tonight. That’s not just putting us at risk, but it’s putting our nation at risk,” Harvey, who received the third most votes, said, per the AP.

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Lopez, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in Colorado twice, said on Thursday night he will “do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability.”

A Kaplan Strategies poll conducted in February found Boebert with 32% of the vote, followed by Lynch with 7%, and Holtorf, Flora, and Yu with 3%.