Lauren Boebert

God, guns, and freedom U.S. Politics

Starting arguments over Thanksgiving dinner

2012 U.S. birth control controversy American Legislative Exchange Council War on Women Greg Abbott James Buchanan Christian evangelism Barry Goldwater

Persons of interest

Herman Cain Chris Christie Robert F. Kennedy Roy Moore Nancy Pelosi James Monroe v - t - e

“”Objecting to the counting of certain electoral votes is NOT “overthrowing” the results of the election if those votes were won through fraud. Winning an election through fraud is what I would consider “overthrowing” the results. That is exactly why we’re fighting for POTUS!

—a tweet from Lauren Boebert

Lauren Opal Boebert (1986–) is a high-school dropout who only just got her GED (high school equivalency degree) in May 2020 (after she began running for office), QAnon nut, and Representative for Colorado's third district, which comprises much of the Western Slope. If Marjorie Taylor Greene is your crazy conspiratorial aunt, then Boebert is your crazy gun nut aunt (which one is crazier is up for debate), and the election of these two in 2020 sadly means QAnoners are better represented in the House of Representatives than openly nonreligious people, of which there is only one.

Before Congress

Rap sheet

Despite being supposedly a pro-"law and order" candidate who opposes Black Lives Matter, she has quite a long list of crimes. She has been arrested and court summoned at least four times, one for alleged harassment, another for an altercation with police, a third for missing a court deadline, and a fourth for reckless driving. She has also been fined for a number of speeding incidents, failures to use seat belts or child restraints, and more petty things like expired plates and improper proof of insurance. Her husband was also arrested for indecent exposure to a minor in 2004, and days later would be arrested for domestic violence; she would marry him a year and a half later.

Militia connections

See the main article on this topic: Militia movement

If her criminal history isn't enough, she also has close ties to extremist right wing militia groups. She has hired the Three Percenters, a far-right anti-government militia operating in the U.S. and Canada that has been labelled as Canada's "most dangerous extremist group" by anti-terrorism experts, as security for her campaign events. She also appeared with a group of Three Percenters and Proud Boys in a protest against red flag laws. She was additionally following multiple QAnon accounts (despite her claiming not to "follow" QAnon), which led to her deleting her channel. and continued to make multiple references to QAnon on the campaign trail.

COVID denialism

She has a history of downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. She kept her restaurant open despite a cease-and-desist letter from the sheriff's office and a later suspension of her restaurant license. She largely campaigned off of opposing the government's COVID restrictions, advocating an approach similar to South Dakota, where they didn't shut down the state, didn't require masks, and allowed large gatherings at special events. This strategy led South Dakota to have the highest COVID death rate in the nation, despite its rural nature, meaning that it shouldn't have been hit as hard as more urban areas such as California. Her campaign rallies were largely maskless super spreader events.

In Congress

Capitol riot

She was a huge supporter of Donald Trump's false claims that he was the real winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that it was "stolen" from him. She was an invited speaker in the March for Trump/Save America rally, which directly preceded the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. During the riot, she tweeted the location of Nancy Pelosi, which resulted in widespread calls for her to resign. The fallout from the insurrection led to the resignation of her communications director. Worse still, she voted to overturn the results of the election in the immediate wake of the riot.

Transphobia

See the main article on this topic: Transphobia

She opposed the Equality Act for transphobic reasons, saying, "Where is the equality in this legislation for the young girls across America who will have to look behind their backs as they change in school locker rooms just to make sure there isn’t a confused man trying to catch a peek?", reinforcing the myth that trans women would rape young girls en masse if they were allowed in locker rooms and women's bathrooms. This ignores the reality that trans women tend to get assaulted vastly more in men's spaces. These remarks earned her the condemnation of not only many Colorado lawmakers but also the LGBTQ caucus. She has said that she is raising her boys "to be men" and is "proud of that" regarding her opposition to puberty blockers, while also espousing homophobic stereotypes and spouting bogus claims that puberty blockers can cause cancer, brain damage, and sterilization when they're totally reversible.