DENVER (KDVR) — Diane Mitsch Bush, the Democrat running in Colorado’s Third Congressional District, conceded to Republican candidate Lauren Boebert early Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press has not yet officially called the winner of the race. However, data from about 12:15 a.m. showed Boebert with 51% of the vote and Mitsch Bush with 46% of the vote with 90% of precincts reporting.
In June, Boebert beat current Republican Rep. Scott Tipton in the district’s primary election. It was an upset, as Tipton has represented the district since he was elected in 2010.
Boebert owns Shooters Grill in Rifle. She is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment.
She gained national attention in September 2019 when she was recorded confronting then-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke about his plan to buy back people’s AR-15s.
“With my Glock on my hip, I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Hell no, you’re not.’ I did that because I didn’t see anyone else doing it,” Boebert said at the time.
Boebert is a controversial figure. She told a conservative podcast that she believes in the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory, which pushes the idea that President Donald Trump is secretly fighting an international network of child-sex predators which includes “prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and ‘deep state’ allies,” according to Reuters.
However, in an interview with KXRM, Boebert said she does not follow QAnon and that her mother had told her about it one time.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers QAnon a domestic terrorism threat.
Colorado’s Third Congressional District is the 15th-largest by area in the county. It covers 29 counties and 47% of Colorado’s geographic territory.