Boebert blames policy, corruption, ‘markets’ for potential loss

(The Hill) — Incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) blamed her potential loss in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District on policy, corruption and “markets” Thursday as her race remains too close to call more than a week out from Election Day.

“Yes, there are so many different variables, and I’m going to start with policy,” she told NewsNation’s Blake Burman. “I’m a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and we were the ones that were having these floor debates when bad bills would come to the floor or deals that were promised weren’t followed through with.”

Although CNN called the race in Democrat Eileen Laubacher’s favor earlier this week, several major election results trackers, including Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) — a partner of The Hill, have yet to project a winner.

President Trump carried the district by 18 points in 2024, per DDHQ, but Boebert has struggled to pull ahead by a similar margin. As of 6:37 p.m. EST Tuesday, with over 95 percent of votes counted, DDHQ had Laubacher leading by 3,362, netting her 48.79 percent of the vote, while Boebert had 47.91 percent.

In her conversation with Burman, Boebert cited the congressional debate over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — which allowed the government to spy on foreigners located abroad — saying, “We were fighting on FISA to have warrants for surveilling American citizens.”

“We wanted fair elections, and there’s so much that we just weren’t heard on,” she continued. “We wanted to ban insider trading for members of Congress.”

Boebert said she believed this election, particularly, was “absolutely a cry that the American people do not want corruption from anyone, any time.”

The lawmaker added that “a lot that went wrong” throughout the election cycle, saying she and the American people “were played by the markets.”

When asked about what being “played by the markets” meant, Boebert said, “Everything is just dropping.”

“I have gas that is under $3 a gallon in my district now, when everything was closer to $6 a gallon just over a week ago,” she said. “And so there needs to be some accountability there. Also, we had legislation that would pause exports for diesel. We had legislation even to suspend the federal gas tax.”

“It’s not a lot, but it’s something to show that we do care about the American people’s wallets.“

The Democrat benefitted from a midterm environment that wiped out many long-term GOP lawmakers in both chambers. Boebert, a long-time Trump ally, attempted to distance herself from national Republicans by speaking out against the Iran war, but it is unclear if that will help her chances of staying in the House.