The Associated Press called Colorado’s 4th Congressional District for Democrat Eileen Laubacher on Friday afternoon, ten days after polls closed, ending Republican Representative Lauren Boebert’s tenure in Congress. The counties’ final unofficial counts, posted to the Colorado Secretary of State’s results on Friday, gave Laubacher 187,688 votes, or 48.8 percent, to Boebert’s 184,165, or 47.9 percent, with Libertarian Douglas Mangeris at 3.3 percent. The 3,523 vote margin is nearly four times the roughly 938 vote gap that would trigger an automatic recount under Colorado law, which requires a margin of half a percent of the leader’s total or less.
Laubacher, 57, is a retired two star Navy rear admiral who served 34 years and later worked on South Asia issues at the National Security Council. She declared victory on Monday, November 9, while attending new member orientation at the Capitol, and won Douglas County, the district’s population centre and a Republican stronghold, by about 11 percentage points, Colorado Public Radio reported. A Decision Desk projection had first called the race for her on November 9; the Associated Press call on Friday, once counties posted their last ballots including cured and overseas votes received by Thursday night, settled it.
Boebert, 39, was first elected in 2020 from Colorado’s 3rd District, survived a 2022 recount by 546 votes, and moved across the state to win the 4th District in 2024, a seat Republicans carried by more than 18 points that year and which had not elected a Democrat since 2008. She declined to concede on Wednesday, saying votes were still being counted, told reporters she would accept the outcome presented on Friday, and has said she will not run for the seat in 2028. She attributed the loss to voter frustration with the status quo rather than to her own candidacy, and she is the third Colorado Republican House member to lose a reelection race this cycle.
Counties must complete their official canvass by November 25, when the results become official on certification. A requested recount remains possible if Boebert files one. Laubacher takes office when the new Congress convenes in January, in a Colorado delegation that will send seven Democrats and one Republican to the House.