Colorado Governor Sets Special Election Date, Boebert Responds After Abrupt Buck Resignation

Colorado’s governor has scheduled a special election for a congressional seat after the abrupt resignation of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), while Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) says she’s not sure whether she will participate.

That’s the same date voters will choose who wins the primary for the seat representing Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, as well as other seats.

The alignment is to “minimize taxpayer cost,” Mr. Polis, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states hold special elections when a vacancy arises in the House of Representatives.

Under Colorado law, a special election must be held between 85 days and 100 days after a vacancy occurs. State law also requires special elections not to be held within 90 days of a general election.

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12/28/2023

The winner of the special election will represent the 4th District until January 2025, when the winner of the November general election, if a different individual from the special election winner, will assume the position.

Boebert Responds

During an online fundraising event, Ms. Boebert said Mr. Buck leaving early “is kind of swampy” and that aligning the special election and primary election “has a lot of potential to confuse voters.”

She said later that she’s “not making any official statement of what I’m doing” in the special election and that she’s concerned about opening up a possible vacancy in her district. She prefers local Republicans pick a person who is not running in the primary and that person fill the vacancy that occurs when Mr. Buck resigns.

“We’re all figuring this out,” Ms. Boebert said. “We’re talking to the vacancy committee, seeing what their plan is, seeing if they have someone who’s not a candidate who’s going to run in the special.”

The crowded primary for the 4th district seat includes about a dozen Republicans.

Ms. Boebert currently represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Under redistricting, that district has shifted from deep red towards the middle. It now has about 7 percent more Republicans than Democrats, according to the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission.

The 4th district leans much more heavily towards Republicans. It has about 19.5 percent more Republicans than Democrats.

Switching districts is “the right move for me personally, and it’s the right decision for those who support our conservative movement,” Ms. Boebert said in 2023 while announcing the move.

“Since the first day I ran for public office, I promised I would do whatever it takes to stop the socialists and communists from taking over our country. That means staying in the fight,” she also said.

Why Buck Resigned

Mr. Buck had said he would be leaving Congress at the end of his term, but his abrupt resignation before the term ended triggered a special election and shrank the GOP majority in the lower chamber to just five seats. He said he feels the House has become dysfunctional and indicated that he is set to get a new job.

“I think there’s a job out there that I want to go do,” Mr. Buck said. He added, “I think we need to change our electoral laws here and I have a passion for that and I am going to lead and I am going to find the right organization to join and I’m going to start working on that issue.”

Mr. Polis said that Mr. Buck “has shown his deep commitment” to improving public safety and serving the nation.

State Rep. Richard Holtorf, a Republican running to represent the 4th district, said the abrupt resignation was “another selfish move by Congressman Buck who has long forgotten about his role as a federal representative and Republican leader in Colorado.”

“The only upside to this decision,” he added later, “is that Ken Buck will no longer have the ability to cast a vote for the Democrats or a vote against the will of the good people of the 4th District.”