Lauren Boebert breaks 36-hour silence as she remains locked in razor-tight race

Update: Boebert took a 433-vote lead after this article was published as counting continues, The Denver Post reported. But there are still about 7,000 votes to be counted in Pueblo County.

"The remaining votes could give Frisch a chance to regain the lead: So far, Pueblo County voters leaned toward the Democratic candidate from Aspen 54% to Boebert's 46%," the outlet reported, adding that the race would go to an automatic recount if the margin of victory is within 0.5%.

Original story:

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is locked in a tight reelection race in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, trailing Democrat Adam Frisch by 64 votes with more than 95% of the votes counted, according to The Associated Press.

The hardline conservative, who was elected to Congress in 2020, has remained one of the loudest voices within the Republican Party amplifying former President Donald Trump's false claims of widespread election fraud and promoting QAnon conspiracy theories.

But, unlike her normal presence on social media, where Boebert often posts tweets attacking Democratic policies or going after President Joe Biden, the MAGA Republican congresswoman fell silent on Twitter for 36 hours as she fell behind in a race she was expected to win by double-digits.

She finally broke her silence Thursday morning, tweeting: "Good morning! Jesus is Lord."

Like other Republicans, she had predicted a "red wave" of GOP wins on Election Day after raising about $2 million for her campaign.

In a conversation with her supporters Tuesday evening, Boebert said she was waiting for "same-day voting ballots" to be counted.

"We know that a lot of Republicans have waited for today to vote," Boebert said. "They're doing that in Mesa County. They're doing it all over Colorado's third district."

Frisch still holds a narrow lead, with 156,746 votes to Boebert's 156,682, though the race remains too close to call.

Compared to her 2020 results, Boebert has been underperforming in many counties even though she won her seat with just 51 percent of votes. The Trump-backed candidate failed to even win her home county.

"Those who know her best don't care for her, and a lot more people know more now than they did in 2020 and not for good reason," said Frisch in an interview with Semafor.

Discovering this data point convinced him to run against her, he added.

"I started to see some tea leaves that maybe the Trumpism is starting to go down," Frisch said. "But for better or worse, the only place in the entire country where there's any mathematical chance to see one of these extremists defeated is Colorado-3. And I knew that somehow there's a way to make this an emotional win for the country and send a message of enough of the hate, enough of the yelling and screaming."

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Unlike Boebert, whose first term in Congress was marked by controversy, Frisch's political career has been rather low-key. He was a former Aspen City Council member, who is now running as a relatively conservative Democrat.

When Boebert arrived in Washington, D.C. as a freshman lawmaker, she made headlines for saying she'd carry a gun at the Capitol. Throughout her two years in Congress, she drew criticism for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor defying COVID rules, tweeting on Jan. 6 that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had left the chamber while a mob was breaking into the capitol and objecting to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. She later heckled President Joe Biden during the State of the Union.

Prior to winning her seat in Congress, the gun-toting congresswoman ran Shooters Grill, a gun-themed restaurant, where she encouraged staff members to carry firearms. She also defied Garfield County's restrictions by staying open during the Covid pandemic. The restaurant has since shut down after being evicted.

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