Opinion | Lauren Boebert Is Feeling the Heat in Colorado

Her opponent “has spoken enough that people know who he is,” she told me. Does she get this sort of criticism a lot? “Have you seen my Twitter?” she responded. She then started in on how “even well-intended women” often ask her variations on the shouldn’t-you-be-staying-home-with-your-kids? question that has forever plagued female candidates. She went on about it long enough that it kind of seems that she does get offended, or at least defensive.

Then there is the “Beetlejuice” brouhaha. Ms. Boebert told me “this is not what voters are concerned about.” She nonetheless did an apology tour over the episode earlier in the campaign. And she is still fielding questions about her character and judgment, if not for the behavior in the theater then for initially lying about it. (At first she denied the incident, but there was video.) Pressed, she accused her Republican opponents of deploying “Democrat talking points.” No matter, she said: “Every attack that comes my way, just like with President Trump, makes me that much stronger.”

No question, her thick skin and willingness to poke fun at herself have come in handy. On her way out of Oscar’s, she was joking with someone about needing to find herself a good rancher now that she is divorced. When she turned and noticed me standing nearby, her eyes popped wide, and she burst into flustered laughter. “I forgot you were still here!” she exclaimed and, quick as a bunny, grabbed my shoulders from behind for a half-hug. She was still laughing at her gaffe as she drifted out to the parking lot.

A true MAGAite, the congresswoman downplays her political failures, including her near loss in 2022. “There were 50,000 Republicans who didn’t turn out,” she says whenever the subject comes up, and her explanation for that points to everything but her performance. The Democrats spent a ton of money in the state, she told me. Democratic voters were “radicalized” by the fall of Roe v. Wade. There was apathy among her voters, possibly based on the assumption things would turn out fine. And many Republicans felt disenfranchised by the 2020 presidential election — which, of course, she says, was stolen.

“When people think their vote doesn’t count, then we have a problem in America,” she said. “I’m working to build that back up. I think a lot of people will show up again, especially for President Trump.” Last time, she said, “there wasn’t strong motivation to get out and vote.”