Many Americans have heard of two-term Western Colorado Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a legislative lightweight who has gained fame and plentiful political donations thanks to her antics, social media posts and heckling of President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address.
Far fewer Americans know of six-term Eastern Colorado Republican congressman Ken Buck, a veteran GOP leader who went to Congress as a legislator first and media celebrity second.
Ken Buck
Buck, 65, is retiring from Congress March 22, frustrated by the ways people like 37-year-old Boebert have turned it into a clown show. For the first time in a century and a half, Colorado will elect a short-term replacement Congress member in a special election, to be held this June.
“This place just keeps going downhill,” Buck said after announcing his departure. “I don’t need to spend my time here.”
He’s not alone, but is part of what the Washington Post calls “the great resignation.” Forty-five members of the 118th Congress have announced plans to retire when their terms end this year. Buck is the sixth to leave before completing their terms.
Boebert and fellow Biden heckler Marjorie Taylor Greene battled each other to see who would be first to draw up impeachment articles against Biden. (The two also backed a bill that would remove special no-fly zones from Disney World and Disneyland.)
Boebert won, claiming her impeachment push is inspired by the Holy Spirit: “We are doing what is right, what is righteous. History will prove that.”
Buck, who has been endorsed by all the major Christian “pro-family” political groups (Family Research Council Action, American Family Association Action, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and Eagle Forum) finds the whole sideshow discouraging.
“We’ve taken impeachment and we’ve made it a social media issue as opposed to a constitutional concept,” he told reporters.
Boebert is running for a third term in November, and to improve her odds, she has moved from her previous Western Colorado District 3 (where she was reelected in 2022 by less than 600 votes) to the reliably Republican Eastern Colorado District 4 currently represented by Buck (where she faces nine lesser known GOP opponents).
But the move won’t allow her to escape a series of tragedies and blunders:
- Last spring, the God-and-family politician filed for divorce from Jayson, her husband of nearly 20 years. The divorce was final in the fall.
- Earlier, she and a male companion were escorted from a Denver theater performance after disturbing theater patrons by vaping, singing, using a cellphone, being frisky with each other and arguing with theater representatives asking them to be quiet. She later apologized.
- In January, she and ex-husband Jayson got in an argument in a restaurant back in Western Colorado. Jayson was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Less than a month later, Jayson was charged again during a dispute with the couple’s 18-year-old son Tyler.
- In February, Tyler was arrested and charged with six felonies and 15 other offenses following a series of auto and property thefts.
In some ways, Tyler’s problems mirror his mother’s. She faced arrests as a teen and dropped out of school at age 18 when she became pregnant with him.
Conservative and Christian groups that embraced Boebert early on have largely remained faithful through her troubles.
Focus on the Family profiled her in a December 2020 article, “Newly Elected Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert Embodies the American Dream.” An accompanying photo showed her with her husband, Jayson, and their four sons. Focus has not covered her recent challenges.
Focus even backed Boebert after she set off metal detectors installed at the Capitol after the January 6 attack: “Democrat-Led Congress Introduces Metal Detector in Capitol, Pro-Gun Representatives Frustrated.”
Boebert is a regular at conservative events hosted by health-and-wealth preacher Andrew Wommack. She told one Wommack crowd Jesus didn’t have enough AR-15 rifles to prevent his crucifixion.
During a February campaign stop in the district she now hopes to represent, she turned to her reliable symbol, a gun, shooting an AR-15 at a gun range.
“Boebert’s move from fringe candidate to a member of the Republican establishment doesn’t mean that she’s changed — it means the establishment has,” said the Washington Post.
But some of Boebert’s former supporters are now endorsing others. The Colorado Springs Gazette endorsed her in 2020 (“In addition to movie star looks, she exudes passion for freedom, capitalism and the United States”) and 2022 (“Boebert Exhibits Traits of Legacy Leadership”) but has now moved on and endorsed one of her opponents.