Businesswoman upsets 5-term congressman in Colorado primary

DENVER — Five-term Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton was upset in Tuesday’s Republican party primary by Lauren Boebert, a pistol-packing businesswoman, ardent defender of gun rights and border wall supporter who wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.

Boebert won after a campaign in which she accused Tipton of not being sufficiently pro-Donald Trump even though the president had endorsed Tipton, and even though Tipton is the Trump campaign’s co-chair for Colorado. Trump congratulated Boebert on Twitter, saying, “Congratulations on a really great win.”

She will run in November’s general election against Diane Mitsch Bush, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday by defeating James Iacino.

Tipton conceded in an email sent by his longtime campaign consultant Michael Fortney.

“(Third) District Republicans have decided who they want to run against the Democrats this November,” Tipton wrote. “I want to congratulate Lauren Boebert and wish her and her supporters well.”

Boebert made a name for herself after loudly protesting Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ orders to close businesses to fight the coronavirus pandemic. She opened her Shooters Grill restaurant in defiance of closure orders.

Boebert confronted then-Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke during a stop last year by in the Denver suburb of Aurora, questioning him on suggestions he’d confiscate guns — a moment that landed her on Fox News.

“A sober look at the Tipton Record shows a back-burner representative that has failed to live up to his conservative chops that he touted on his Tea Party-inspired campaign trail,” Boebert wrote in a recent Aspen Times column. “If his record lived up to his campaign rhetoric, I wouldn’t feel so compelled to run.”

The Associated Press