Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) turned 36 in December. She is proud of the fact that rural teenagers have babies at a far greater rate than urban ones. And indeed, in April, one of her four sons, Tyler, will become a father at 17 and she will become a grandmother. We searched for information about the youngest grandma in House history but couldn't find any data. But it is quite likely that Boebert will break the record. Congratulations.
Having kids when you are still a kid is a family tradition with the Boeberts. She had Tyler, her first child, when she was in high school. She never went to college and soon had three more sons. She is also a big fan of guns and used to have a restaurant called "The Shooter's Grill" in Rifle, CO. But before you jump to any conclusions and think she is a hillbilly, remember that her district is in Western Colorado and is more mountainous than hilly. She could be a mountainbilly, though. Actually, though, she was born in Florida and grew up there and has no ties to Appalachia. So, J.D. Vance doesn't have competition.
If her grandchild follows the Boebert tradition and has a baby at 17, the representative could be a great-grandmother at 53 and maybe a great-great-grandmother at 70. We'll stop there. Although Boebert is a big supporter of family values, Tyler is not married. Apparently she didn't fully communicate her family values to him or maybe he was busy playing a video game when she did.
If you think you have seen this movie before, you probably have. In 2008, when then-44-year-old Sarah Palin was running for vice president, she announced at the Republican National Convention that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol Palin, was pregnant. Presidential candidate John McCain's advisors thought that a shotgun wedding would be a boon to the ticket. However, the baby's father, Levi Johnston, balked at it. The couple never got married. An abortion was out of the question since that would have ended mom's career instantly. In May 2009, Bristol appeared on Good Morning America to honor the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy as a subject-matter expert. She and Johnston were engaged but later broke it off. Then they got engaged again and broke it off again, so she moved on.
In March 2015, Bristol announced her engagement to Dakota Meyer. In May 2015, she announced her disengagement from Meyer. In June 2015, she announced that she was pregnant with Meyer's child. After the baby was born, she and Meyer got married. A year and a half later they got divorced. Clearly, Republicans hold family values dear. They just define "family" slightly differently from Democrats. (V)