Boebert will likely fill the House seat vacated by the congressman who criticized the extremes of the Republican Party

DENVER – Former Republican US Representative Ken Buck resigned from Congress frustrated by a flank of the Republican Party’s unwavering devotion to former President Donald Trump. Now it will probably be replaced by one of its most turbulent leaders, Representative Lauren Boebert.

Boebert, who made a name for himself as a headline-grabbing Trump devotee, won Tuesday night’s Republican primary in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. Boebert joined the district race last year, escaping what would have been a difficult re-election attempt in the seat he currently holds and almost lost to a Democrat in 2022.

The deputy’s political game worked. Buck’s hopes for a more moderate Congress apparently did not materialize, at least in his old seat.

While other Republican candidates in Boebert’s line lost their Colorado primaries on Tuesday, Boebert has a clear path to victory in a deep red district that supported Trump in 2020.

After his victory on Tuesday, Boebert donned reflective gold shoes sold by Trump and a signature “Make America Great Again” hat and defended his uncompromising policies. While some may disagree with her style in Washington, she said, “nothing happens without strength.”

But the path to victory in Tuesday’s primary was not so clear. O throw dice to skip districts It was made even more dicey by an embarrassing moment when the congresswoman was caught on tape vaping and causing a disturbance with a date at a musical production of “Beetlejuice.” Boebert has also been plagued along her journey by accusations of cheating from fellow Republicans.

Buck, a staunch fiscal conservative and alumnus of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus that includes Boebert, has avoided publicly stating his thoughts on his likely replacement. He declined a request to comment for this article.

But the former congressman broadly criticized his party’s parrot over Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, questioned efforts to impeach President Joe Biden and rejected some of his party’s allegations that those accused in the January 6 riots at the Capitol are political prisoners.

Boebert was a big part of that. In a recording of Buck at a private event initially reported by Political, the former deputy said that “she makes George Santos look like a saint”. Santos was expelled from Congress last year.

Drew Sexton, Boebert’s campaign manager, said voters supported Boebert because they saw his political doggedness in Congress as promises kept at the campaign trial and his apologies as sincere.

“She showed that she is sorry. She is committed to making things better for herself personally and is absolutely getting the right votes,” he said.

The replacement of more traditional Republicans with MAGA adherents is a broader trend, said Seth Masket, director of the Center for American Politics in Denver.

“Some of them tried to fight him and some of them just decided to resign and for the most part are replaced by people who are much more loyal to Donald Trump. This is very consistent with the direction of the party,” Masket said.

Although Boebert is about 30% ahead of the Republican runner-up, with nearly all the votes counted Wednesday, more than half of voters voted for one of the other five candidates.

“Boebert offers a mixed lesson for other Republicans,” Masket said, pointing to his 2022 near-defeat in a Republican-leaning district. “There may not be such a high price, but there is some price to be paid for acting too brazenly and embracing Trump too much.”

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Jesse Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercovered issues.