Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is refusing to concede her re-election race, even though CNN projects she will lose her seat to a Democrat.
“No, the votes aren’t in. So why would I concede if the votes aren’t in?” Boebert told CNN’s Manu Raju when asked whether she would concede.
Asked whether she still thinks she can win, she held out hope.
“Well, we’re gonna see,” she told Raju. “There’s always a path until there’s not. So on Friday, we’ll have hopefully everything counted, all the cured ballots in, and all the military overseas ballots in.”
CNN’s Decision Desk projects that retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, ending Boebert’s run in Congress and denying her a fourth term. Laubacher served more than three decades in the Navy and focused her campaign on affordability, taking advantage of the national backlash against the GOP.
The loss is especially stinging for Boebert because she switched to the more conservative 4th District last cycle to protect her political future. In 2022, in her old district, she beat Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes. She won the new seat in 2024 by more than 11 points.
Speaking to reporters Monday night, Boebert said she would wait for the final count.
“Hopefully, we’ll have that number on Friday, and whatever decisions are, whatever comes of that, then we’ll accept that and move forward in whatever way,” she said.
Boebert first won her seat in 2020 by ousting a five-term Republican incumbent in a primary. She quickly became one of the most recognizable, and polarizing, faces of the GOP’s MAGA wing. She infamously heckled President Joe Biden during his 2022 State of the Union address, and she was a frequent headache for Republican Speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.
Her relationship with Trump has also been rocky. Trump endorsed her days before the election, calling her a “MAGA Warrior, who has been with us from the very beginning.” Earlier this year, though, he called her “dumb” and “weak-minded” and threatened to pull his endorsement after she campaigned for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of his most vocal GOP critics, in his primary.
Boebert also crossed Trump and House GOP leaders last year when she joined a Democratic effort to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, resisting a White House push to change her vote.