Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado has accused celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Barbra Streisand of forcing her out of her district and into a Republican primary in a district miles away from where she lives.
Ms Boebert, the right-wing firebrand congresswoman and ardent supporter of former president Donald Trump, appeared on former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Mr Bannon noted how Democrats had raised $10m against Ms Boebert since her 2022 race, when she narrowly beat Democrat Adam Frisch by 546 votes, mostly from the ski town of Aspen.
Last week, Ms Boebert announced that she would not run in Colorado’s 3rd district which she represents and instead run in the Republican primary for retiring Rep Ken Buck’s seat in the 4th district. She explained to Mr Bannon that she chose to switch districts to allow for a conservative candidate to win in the 3rd district.
“They do not have policies that they are running on, they're simply running against Lauren Boebert,” she told Mr Bannon. “And it's not just Aspen that the money is coming from. It's coming from Hollywood when you have Barbra Streisand coming in and donating to the Democrat. When you have Ryan Reynolds coming in and donating to the Democrat, it shows you that Hollywood is trying to buy their way into Congress.”
She added that George Soros, the billionaire financier who bankrolls Democratic causes and candidacies, spent money on the race.
Mr Frisch received an avalanche of cash in 2023. In the most recent fundraising quarter between July and September, he received $3.37m in net campaign contributions, with $4.3m in cash on hand. Ms Boebert on the other hand, raised only $797,542.90 in net contributions that same quarter and had $1.4m in cash on hand.
Ms Boebert has become a source of controversy throughout her time in Congress. During the January 6 riot, she tweeted that then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi had been removed from the chamber as rioters breached the Capitol. Her joke implying that Democratic Rep Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Muslim woman, was a terrorist led to Ms Omar receiving multiple death threats.
She also received unwanted media attention when during a live-action performance of Beetlejuice, she was asked to leave after she was caught vaping near a pregnant woman, talking too loud and inappropriately groping her date. After initially denying her poor conduct, she apologised after video footage showed her doing so.
Even though the 4th district is far from her home, Ms Boebert defended her decision to decamp to a more conservative area.
“I love Colorado's third district and we'll continue to fight for each and every person who's in the district and like I said, these are bordering districts they neighbor one another they are very similar and many ways when it comes to natural resources, agriculture, farming ranching,” she said.
The Colorado Sun reported Ms Boebert lives hundreds of miles from the district near the town of Silt. Members of Congress do not have to live in the district they represent in Colorado.
