Lauren Boebert has moved ahead of Democratic challenger Adam Frisch for the House seat representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District by a thin margin in a tight race that has caught many off guard.
After trailing througout Wednesday and into Thursday morning, Ms Boebert finally gained a small lead over Mr Frisch in the afternoon with 98 per cent of votes counted. As of 2pm local time Thursday, she holds 50.1 per cent to Mr Frisch’s 49.9 per cent - a difference of just 433 votes.
Ms Boebert expressed her happiness at the development - after hours of silence while she trailed - by tweeting: “Winning!”
The tight race - still too close to call - comes as something of a surprise to both Republicans and Democrats – as well as pollsters – after the controversial, gun-toting congresswoman had been expected to enjoy a comfortable reelection.
Ms Boebert’s 2022 campaign was one of the most expensive House races across the US, with the far-right incumbent raising over $6.6m in campaign contributions in the run-up to the midterms, according to data from Open Secrets.
None of the mainstream polling groups had even surveyed voters in the race for the House seat, indicating the shock factor that it has now shaped up to be a close race.
Ms Boebert had easily sailed to victory in the Republican primary, earning two in every three votes.
However, she only won the seat in 2020 with 51 per cent of votes.
A loss for Ms Boebert would be a surprise upset for Republicans, whose so-called “red wave” has failed to materialise.
It could also raise questions about Donald Trump’s future in the GOP if one of the most infamous MAGA Republicans fails to hold onto her seat.
Ms Boebert was elected to Congress in 2020 and, since then, has carved out her position as a far-right figure in the GOP, a vocal Trump supporter and a 2020 election denier.
She has repeatedly pushed false claims about the presidential election, infamously heckled President Joe Biden during his State of the Union speech and voted against providing healthcare and benefits to sick veterans.
Mr Frisch, a currency trader who served on the Aspen, Colorado city council for eight years, took on Ms Boebert because he opposed her performative brand of GOP politics.
In an earlier interview with The Independent, he said he decided to challenge her after finding some of her bizarre comments “disgusting and anti-ethical to America”.
“I was thinking, you know, if a moderate, pragmatic, pro-business Democrat could get by the Democratic primary, which wouldn’t be easy – and it wasn’t – I thought I could build a coalition,” he said.
The close race in Colorado comes as Republicans have failed to generate the red wave they were anticipating across the US.
Democrats have so far flipped a Senate seat, with John Fetterman defeating Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
Some GOP members have admitted that the night did not go as planned, with Senator Lindsey Graham telling NBC: “Definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.”
