Republican Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has a habit of making headline-grabbing social media posts featuring controversial claims and gun-toting pictures.
Now one of her Democratic challengers is hitting back just as hard – not fighting fire with fire, but with feces.
Political newcomer Alex Walker, a self-proclaimed “queer engineering nerd”, launched his run against the outspoken right-winger this week with an equally controversial campaign ad.
In the video, Colorado residents are bombarded with feces from the sky, streams of excrement covering everything from their faces to children’s teddy bears. Mr Walker, introducing himself, picks up one such stained, soaked stuffed toy and says: “We are real Coloradans.”
“We deserve a living wage, small government that actually works and freedom of choice. Instead, we have bull****.”
The young political newbie then asks: “Don’t you ever wonder where it’s all coming from?” – only for the video to cut to a red-tinted Boebert nameplate on a desk to the sounds of evil cackling.
Ms Boebert’s challenger continues: “Colorado needs a bull, not a bullsh*****. I’m Alex Walker, and I approve the s*** out of this message.”
The sitting congresswoman has been no stranger to controversy herself, however, in the past not only seeming to support views espoused by the conspiracy QAnon network but also posing over the holidays as she and her children, several not of legal age, held guns.
Both candidates are young, attractive and clearly media savvy – perhaps paving the way for an interesting political race.
On his new campaign site, Walker for Colorado, the Democrat writes that he is a “Colorado native, engineer, writer & small business owner.
“I’m a gay moderate who believes in small government, personal freedom & human rights. Groundbreaking,” he writes, punctuated by a rolling-eyes emoji.
“My policies are built on reason, not party nonsense. Some lean left. Some lean right. None of them involve sex cults or pizza,” he says in an apparent dig at QAnon and the debunked rumour about a DC paedophile ring with famous affiliates.
In a particular barb, he writes, “If you’ve over bottom-feeding racist morons like Lauren Boebert: welcome.”
Mr Walker’s site lists no contact number for his campaign and an attempt by The Independent to reach him on social media was not immediately successful.
His Twitter profile features a photo of him giving the finger to the camera, with his bio reading that he’s “smart, hot, humble, running for Congress against Lauren Boebert, obviously.”
He’s not the only candidate challenging the congresswoman, who owns a bar in Rifle, Colorado - more than three hours west of Denver - boasting armed waitresses. According to the Denver Post, 10 other Democrats are also running against the outspoken mother, who enjoys being pictured with a gun in her holster and posting piercing insults of anyone she deems too liberal.
All of their campaign financing is woefully behind that of Ms Boebert, though, the paper reported.
And some from her own party want her out, too. Highly touted as a real competitor is state senator Don Coram, who last month tried to present himself at a news conference as a more moderate alternative to Ms Boebert.
“It is an urban and rural divide, and that divide is carried over into our nation. It’s time to get somebody there that is willing to say, ‘You know what, I don’t need a sound bite, I need to get something passed,’ and I’ve passed hundred of pieces of legislation,” Mr Coram said, adding: “I have a history of working across the aisle, some people think that’s wrong, but we all don’t think the same.”
Ms Boebert, in response to the Republican’s announcement of his congressional challenge, released a statement calling the mustachioed septuagenarian “a self-serving, super-woke social liberal who would have a far better chance of winning the Democrat nomination.”
