'Wounded' Lauren Boebert's future in doubt as key allies flip to GOP challenger

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who barely held her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms, may not survive the 2024 GOP primary as key Republicans in the state who formerly backed her flip their allegiance to a challenger who doesn't have near the political — and personal — baggage she does.

According to a report from the New York Times, the controversial lawmaker from Colorado is struggling to hang onto supporters after her well-publicized groping and vaping incident with a date got her thrown out of the play "Beetlejuice" in September.

As the Times' Charles Homan writes the scandal of the evening, and her subsequent attempts to lie about what happened, remains "sticky" for the two-term member of the House and, back in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district that she represents, key allies have switched their endorsements to businessman Jeff Hurd.

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According to the NYT report, "Mr. Hurd’s candidacy has become a vessel for Republican discontent with the perceived excesses of the party’s MAGA wing. His backers include old-guard party fixtures such as former Gov. Bill Owens, former Sen. Hank Brown, and Pete Coors, the brewery scion, former Senate candidate and 2016 Trump fund-raiser, who will soon be offering his endorsement, according to Mr. Hurd’s campaign."

According to the report, Boebert's antics and scandals have left her "wounded."

As GOP activist David Spiegel put it at a meet-up where the embattled Boebert was present, "That crap she pulled in Denver pissed me off."

Of concern to the Republican Party leadership, which is already witnessing withering losses in the state to Democrats, Boebert is headed for defeat in the general election even if she survives the GOP primary.

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Republican Bobbie Daniel, a Mesa County commissioner who backed Boebert in 2020 sounded the alarm, telling the Times: "We all know what happened last cycle. There wasn’t a lot of room for error.”

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