Lauren Boebert danced in red high heels under a challenge from foam noodle-wielding Republicans at a mock “American Gladiator” event during one of the most surreal moments of a final campaign appearance Thursday — before voters in a district she They just decided if they want her to represent them in Congress.
Your opponent in ColoradoNew York’s 4th Congressional District Richard Holtorf stamped the ground with his foot before accelerating to meet the same challenge at full speed — likely in honor of the cattle his family has raised for three generations. He traded in his trademark cowboy hat for a “Freedom” baseball cap.
The two congressional candidates took part in the good-natured pool noodle race during the candidate forum of the Freedom Fellowship of Douglas County Republicans — a “conservative, Christian group,” they told attendees during an opening address. “Everyone is welcome here, but in this group we try to promote Christian and conservative principles here in Douglas County.”
The vibe was friendly, raucous and unabashedly conservative Thursday in the event room at the Blue Spruce Brewery in Centennial, just over 10 miles southeast of downtown Denver. (Denver and its liberal voting bloc were favorite verbal punching bags all night.)
Boebert and Holtorf, who will face four more candidates next week Republican primary for the CD4 seat, appeared alongside seven other Republican Party candidates running for different state and local offices. The forum was recorded by a phone camera mounted on an overturned bucket on a table.
In another surreal moment, proceedings began with a prayer as Justin Timberlake What goes around comes around played over the brewery’s speakers before the volume was appropriately reduced. Then, those gathered, numbering about 75, recited the Pledge of Allegiance toward a large flag unfurled and raised at the front of the room by another participant.
Each candidate had seven minutes to speak, and those who exceeded the time limit were hit by nerf guns in the hands of the same “Gladiators” in the front row.
Neither Boebert nor Holtorf faced difficult questions about the major controversies that plagued both campaigns. Staunchly pro-life Holtorf was asked about paying for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion; Boebert, for his part, is mired in family and personal scandals, as well as criticism of carpet bagging.
She only entered the crowded Republican primary in December, announcing around the holidays that she would abandon her reelection campaign in her congressional district of CD3 — hundreds of miles away on the other side of the state — for a shot at the strongest. Conservative CD4.
She and Holtorf repeatedly took aim at each other during the campaign, but spoke apparently amicably throughout the event — although he did face a voter question about an interview last month in which he said Boebert needs to “learn how to dress.”
“When I got here, I went to Congresswoman Boebert and I told her — I said, ‘You look beautiful tonight. You are very well dressed,” he said on Thursday night.
Boebert, shaking his head, responded, “He said, ‘Ever since I said that, you’ve been dressing a lot better’” — provoking a chorus of “boos” from those in attendance.
The two-term CD3 representative seemed at ease in the days leading up to the big primaries, answering questions succinctly and specifically and giving examples of successes she had already achieved.
She also went to great lengths to highlight her faith.
“In all of this, there is something that I prioritize a little more than politics, a lot more than politics, because it influences everything I do legislatively and guides my life – and that is my walk of faith” , she said, her voice and posture slipping into the preacher’s dialect.
“I love freedom, because I have been freed. It was for freedom that we were freed,” she said, to applause and boos. “I’ve lived this life, trapped by sin and shame, and I know what it’s like to have those doors open and step into a beautiful, abundant life.”
She joked that the last sentence sounded like Trump; a longtime loyalist to the 45th president, he endorsed Boebert in the 4th.
And just like Trump, Boebert then went into the us-versus-them, good-versus-evil rallying cries of the far right, injecting everything with Christianity and, at one point, apparently equating the biblical judgments and sacrifices of King David with her. first job at McDonald’s.
“When we have politicians who are doing everything they can to destroy our country because they don’t have a moral compass, because they have insulted themselves by thinking that they are God and that their rights come from them and not from our creator, God, we can counteract their destruction with joy,” she said. “You cannot defeat us, because Jesus paid too high a price… for us to be defeated.”
