Boebert Loses Colorado District Lead to Navy Admiral Laubacher

Lauren Boebert is not reelected. At least, she isn’t yet. As of midnight Tuesday, the race for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District was too close to call, with Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher holding a 49.3% lead over the incumbent’s 47.7%.

The margin translates to roughly 5,000 votes with 80% of ballots counted. Douglas Mageris of the Libertarian Party sits third at 3%.

The Colorado Sun reported that Boebert, who moved to Windsor in 2024 after representing the 3rd District for two terms, is trying to hold a seat that was once considered solidly Republican. The district spans the Eastern Plains and extends into Douglas County and Loveland. To hear Laubacher tell it, she ran because she was fed up with the extremes in both parties. She spent 34 years in the U.S. Navy, including a deployment to Afghanistan and work on South Asia policy under President Joe Biden. She retired in 2024 as a rear admiral and is running for office for the first time.

The financial disparity between the two campaigns was stark. Laubacher, of Highlands Ranch, raised $13.7 million through mid-October. Boebert raised $1.2 million in the same period. The money gap reflects a shift in the political landscape for the district, which polls suggested would still lean Republican, but not by the wide margins of previous cycles.

Boebert’s path to this tight race has been marked by personal and political turbulence. In 2023, she was escorted out of a performance of “Beetlejuice” after being seen taking photographs, groping her date, and vaping in the theater. That incident resurfaced this fall via attack ads from a Democratic super PAC that invested $1.5 million in the effort to oust her. She also appeared in court recently to ask for leniency for her son, who faces charges of child abuse and sexual exploitation.

The relationship between Boebert and President Donald Trump played a decisive role in the final stretch of the campaign. In early 2026, Trump called Boebert “dumb” and “weak-minded” for campaigning for U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and Trump critic. Four days before the election, that stance reversed. Trump endorsed Boebert, calling her a “MAGA Warrior” in a social media post and holding a telephone rally for her. The endorsement came five months after the public insult, signaling that Boebert’s reelection needed an assist.

Two years ago, Boebert won the 3rd District by just 546 votes. In 2024, she was reelected by 11 percentage points with 53% of the vote. This time, the math is different. The district’s shift toward competitiveness means that small margins of error in vote counting could decide the outcome.

On election night, Boebert held a watch party at a Windsor sports bar wearing an American flag sweater. Laubacher’s team is watching the remaining ballots closely, knowing that a lead of 5,000 votes in a district this size is narrow enough to be overturned by late-arriving mail-in ballots or recounts.

Laubacher, who pitched herself as a drama-free alternative to the incumbent’s volatile public persona, has spent her career in intelligence and national security. Her background offers a contrast to Boebert’s high-profile social media presence. The question is whether voters in the Eastern Plains will reward that stability or stick with the Republican brand, even as it faces internal fractures.

The district’s lean is no longer a certainty. The 4th District, which includes towns like Windsor and parts of Douglas County, has seen a shift in voter alignment that caught the incumbent off guard. The race is now a test of whether the Republican base in Colorado’s eastern plains will hold firm or fracture under the pressure of a contested election.

Boebert has spent her career in Washington, D.C., managing the demands of a national stage. Laubacher brings a different kind of experience, one rooted in military service and bureaucratic policy work. The voters will decide which type of representative they want, but the decision is not yet made.

Laubacher said she was drawn to run because she was fed up with the extremes in both parties. That sentiment, combined with a significant fundraising advantage and a late endorsement from Trump for her opponent, has created a race that is genuinely uncertain. The final count will determine who represents the 4th District in Congress, but until then, the lead is slim and the outcome is in doubt.