When people seek to contextualize Trump, there are several names that
have always come up over the years— Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Rudy Giuliani, Roy Cohn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and, for a longer time than anyone else-- with the exception of Cohn-- PT Barnum. One of Barnum’s classic phrases is one Trump has lived his life by: “The only bad publicity is no publicity” or “There's no such thing as bad publicity.” Trump has always confided that even the kind of negative publicity he has gotten all his life managed to put him on the map; attention is attention and it increases awareness, curiosity and especially opportunity. And, as you may have noticed, in some cases, negative attention leads to a cult following and even counterculture appeal.
The problem with all this is that negative publicity, especially continuous, unabated negative publicity, can severely damage trust, brand image, and anything related to ethics, safety or social responsibility. It can also linger online and in people's memories. And this has been more true in regard to Trump imitators than in the case of the cult leader himself. Damaged goods for example: Marjorie Traitor Greene, Matt Gaetz, George Santos, Tommy Tuberville, JD Vance. And Lauren Boebert, currently trying to move her circus routine across the state to an area where her reputation precedes here.
What if the new voters who will decide her fate prefer a serious legislator over a handjob artist and MAGA drama queen? Yesterday, Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Findell looked into that in the lead-up to the GOP primary in the new district Boebert is trying to move to virtually out of the blue. “Voters there were divided, reflecting what political analysts are forecasting: It will be a hard-fought and unpredictable primary race… Boebert, who has long been aligned with Trump, said in December that she would move her political career from a congressional district covering Colorado’s Western Slope ranches and mountain towns to the eastern Fourth District… Boebert brings a $1.3 million war chest and almost-universal name recognition to the 11-person race in a district that covers agricultural plains stretching from Wyoming to New Mexico, and some of the wealthiest suburbs of Denver and Fort Collins.”
Her fame could help in a crowded race, but it has become as much of a curse as a blessing, as she deals with fallout from scandals including her removal from a Denver theater back in September. The reception from grass-roots Republican groups has been chilly. The field includes strong local candidates, several with long statewide political experience and regional backing.
“On Facebook she’s not been well received by Republicans,” GOP voter Tammi Flemming said. “It’s the shenanigans and the drama and moving districts.”
Boebert, who is settling in with her sons in the town of Windsor, southeast of Fort Collins, has cast herself as a proven fighter in the “swamp” of Washington, D.C.
“I have learned that closed mouths don’t get fed,” she said in an interview. “In this movement, we can’t afford to lose strong voices, and mine is certainly one of those.”
The congresswoman gained national recognition for her vocal support of gun rights when she was first elected in 2020. Her district switch came after she nearly lost her seat in 2022, prevailing over the Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch, by just 546 votes in an area where many said they had grown tired of Trump-style politics.
On the campaign trail, Boebert is trying to broaden her brand, speaking about a measure that would lead to the sale and development of federal land in western Colorado, which recently became her first stand-alone bill to pass the House, and about a measure that aims to protect jobs in the midst of the closure of a chemical depot in Pueblo.
She vows to impeach President Biden and to introduce a bill she dubs “Build the Wall, Deport Them All.” She has emphasized that voters know what she will do in Congress, because she has been doing it for three years.
Several Republicans said they liked Boebert when she was first elected in western Colorado, or liked her political alignment overall, but had grown weary of the turmoil associated with her and resented having it brought to their part of the state. The theater incident, which involved video footage of Boebert’s being removed from a production of Beetlejuice after vaping and groping her date in the theater, was the final straw, some said.
“I don’t appreciate, as a Christian, people saying they’re Christian to get your vote and then turning out to be a lowlife, and now I just kind of think of her as a lowlife,” said Judy Scofield, a retired university employee who said she was looking for a strong conservative who understood the state’s remaining deep-red areas. Boebert apologized for the incident, attributing her behavior to the stress of her divorce.
The other candidates are finding every chance to remind voters that Boebert is a newcomer. At the Elbert County event, one spoke of the cattle ranch his family has run in the district for over 130 years. Another spoke of raising his kids in the same house where his father was born, urging voters to elect “someone who understands you.”
“You don’t need someone who’s going to go from district to district because they can’t win,” said another candidate, Weld County Councilman Trent Leisy, drawing an “oooh” from the crowd. Boebert gave a small smile.
Though the sprawling district’s land is largely agricultural, the bulk of its voters live in the suburbs of Denver. Douglas County, one of the 10 highest-income counties in the U.S., has nearly half of the district’s Republican voters.
Douglas County tends to be more of a center-right community, while the Eastern Plains communities are most like the agricultural communities in Boebert’s former district, which included ritzy ski towns but no urban areas, the Republican strategist Josh Penry said.
“The idea that because it’s a Republican stronghold that they’re going to nominate a fringe conservative like a Boebert in the primary is a wrong notion— this thing is a horse race,” Penry said. He is supporting former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg in the race.
…Colorado liberals, meanwhile, see Boebert as a potential boon. A recent poll by the left-leaning research group The Mountaineer found that just 17% of Colorado voters have a favorable view of her, less than half the 36% and 40% favorability ratings for Trump and Biden, respectively.
“Tying all Republicans to Boebert is a winning strategy for Democrats,” the group’s report concluded.
On Sunday’s State of the Union, Liz Cheney told Jake Tapper that “[W]hen you look at these cases, and you look at the verdicts and the judgments, it’s clear the common thread that runs through all of them is Donald Trump’s lack of willingness to abide by the law, lack of commitment to the truth, [his] fundamental lack of character. And one of the things that is so troubling about this political season is the extent to which you’ve got people that used to be good and honorable members of Congress, for example, who have simply apparently abandoned the need to actually elect people of character and honor and instead embracing him.”
But that doesn’t start with members of Congress. It starts with the voters in their districts. We won’t know what Republican voters in Douglas, Larimer, Weld, Elbert, Arapaho and the 15 other, mostly rural counties, decide to do about Lauren Boebert until June 25, at which time we’ll see if PT Barnum’s and Trump’s little aphorism about publicity still holds water.
