The outspoken owner of a Garfield County restaurant where the servers carry guns on the job announced a run for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District Sunday.
Republican Lauren Boebert, 33, owner of Shooters Grill in Rifle, will challenge Republican incumbent Scott Tipton for the district, which covers roughly half of Colorado, including Pueblo, Grand Junction, Eagle, Steamboat Springs and Durango.
Boebert, who lives in Silt and has never been elected to any post before, joins the race with several Democratic candidates who hope to unseat Tipton, including James Iacino, former CEO of Seattle Fish Co., Diane Mitsch Bush, who lost to Tipton last year; and longtime Durango resident Root Routledge.
Boebert, a self-described avid supporter of President Donald Trump, briefly attracted national attention in September when she challenged then-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke about a comment he made during a Democratic primary debate in which he said, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47…”
“I am here to say: Hell, no, you’re not,” Boebert told him during his town-hall style visit to Aurora. Her comment was met with scattered jeers.
Boebert said in an interview Sunday that she will fight for “freedom, personal responsibility and the Constitution” if elected.
“Honestly I am running to stand up for hardworking Americans all over this nation who are tired of the narrative being driven by AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the squad and these far left lunatics while our current representation stays utterly silent,” she said.
She added that she’s worked on grassroots political efforts before and said political activism is part of who she is.
“If AOC can be one person and direct the narrative for an entire nation, then doggone so can I,” she said. “I am ready to stand up and change that narrative back to good.”
