Rep. Lauren Boebert is undergoing an in-state rebrand from a far-right firebrand of Washington, D.C. to a "bring-home-the-bacon pol" in Colorado as she prepares for a 2024 re-election bid, Politico reports. The subtle shift in her strategy — addressing Colorado policy and a local water shortage over the President Biden impeachment push — comes after she barely eked out a second-term last fall following a recount that saw her beating out Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes.
Though she's not the only U.S. legislator switching up her public persona between the Capitol and her home state, her embrace of different political selves demonstrates the stakes of playing more to the MAGA base than voters in her competitive district.
Boebert's opponent, however, is not sold on her approach.
"When you have the worst performing race in probably 20 years, you're going to try to reset. And her team was trying to get her to reset," Frisch told Politico, noting her fight with fellow far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on the House floor earlier this year. Boebert blamed her near loss in 2022 on "harvesting" of absentee ballots — a claim heavily disputed by Colorado's Democratic secretary of state — a lack of outside help and low Republican turnout. Despite her district's strong conservative slant, the area also has a history of electing more pragmatic lawmakers. Because of that tendency, local Republicans point to her rebrand as a positive sign, and her allies hope it will be enough to for re-election in one of the party's battleground races next fall.
Frisch outraised the ultra-conservative representative in the last quarter, and his strategy has capitalized on voters' disinterest with far-right pandering by presenting Boebert as a "media-hungry extremist who's failed to deliver for her district," Politico writes. "She's not a very pragmatic person, and my assumption is that she's proud of that," Frisch told the outlet. "Her team is trying to get her to change, but people are who they are."
