Buck's Exit Is a Big Problem for Boebert

Republican Rep. Ken Buck announced Tuesday that he is leaving Congress earlier than planned, creating a dilemma for Rep. Lauren Boebert. Whoever wins the special election to replace Buck for the rest of his term in Colorado's 4th District will have a big advantage in the general election as an incumbent. Boebert is running in the 4th District primary, but she currently represents the state's 3rd District.

She can't run in the special election without vacating her seat, reports the Hill; it notes that doing so "would further eat into the House GOP's narrow majority" as well as trigger a special election for her seat, introducing the possibility it could flip. Boebert won re-election in the 3rd District by a margin of 0.08% in 2022. She announced her switch to run in the more solidly Republican 4th District late last year.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has said he plans to hold the special election on June 25, the same day as the district's Republican primary, the Colorado Sun reports. In a statement Wednesday, Boebert called Buck's early departure a "gift to the uniparty," saying, "The establishment concocted a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election I'm winning by 25 points." She said holding an "unnecessary" special election on the same day as the primary will "confuse voters" and leave the district without representation for months. "I will not further imperil the already very slim House Republican majority by resigning my current seat," she said. (More Lauren Boebert stories.)