Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is a right-wing firebrand, a sort of Marjorie Taylor Greene but without the Southern accent or "charm." When she is in her home district on the Western Slope, she wears cowgirl boots. In D.C., she wears stilettos (because she is tiny—5'0"). But that isn't the only difference. Her views and positions are also dependent on which side of the Mississippi she is on. How can this be?
Maybe it has something to do with her near-death experience in the 2022 midterm election. She beat an unfunded unknown financial trader, Adam Frisch, by only 546 votes (0.07%) even though she was a sitting House member. It was the closest House race of the 2022 cycle. He is already in for 2024 and now has a national following and donor base of Democrats who think their $20 to defeat Boebert is money well spent. Frisch said "[we] showed that national extremist politicians are not invincible." The 2022 election scared the bejeebus out of Boebert.
The Representative's solution is to tell her constituents one thing and the Freedom Caucusers, the big donors, and the lobbyists in D.C. something very different. Works every time. In the capital, she is still a FC firebrand, but back home her main concern seems to be farmers' water rights. Doing a mode change every time she gets off a plane takes some practice, but she is working on it:
Her social media feeds are clearly aimed at the D.C. crowd. They are filled with her fiery speeches in the House and her motion to impeach Joe Biden. The latter is a sore point because she and Greene are fighting over who should get the honor of leading the movement to impeach. Here they are yelling "Build the wall" during his first State of the Union speech:
Conservatives are lucky that they can choose between a brunette wacko and a blonde wacko. Not all parties offer that choice. Someone forgot to tell them that Congress is not the British House of Commons.
Boebert is also using an old trick to try to placate the voters who don't like her antics: Get pork. She takes pride in the $20 million in earmarks she snagged for her district this cycle. Her pitch is implicitly "You may not like my behavior, but I deliver for my constituents." She also claims to work well with both (Democratic) Colorado senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. However, none of their joint bills have passed. A Democratic aide noted: "I'd argue she is chaotic and conveniently highlights whenever things are parallel." But an old friend of Boebert's noted that her sudden interest in local issues is definitely due to the 2022 election scare. Whether her new split personality works with the voters remains to be seen. The left in Colorado has a history of taking down firebrand Republicans. (V)