A national decision desk projected Monday that Democrat Eileen Laubacher has defeated Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, flipping a Republican-held seat and ending Boebert’s tenure in Congress.
The projection came six days after Election Day, with Laubacher leading Boebert 185,923 votes to 182,686 in the Colorado Secretary of State’s unofficial count — 48.8% to 47.9% — with an estimated 98% of the vote counted. Libertarian Douglas Mangeris received 12,605 votes, or 3.3%. Laubacher’s 3,237-vote margin sits well outside Colorado’s automatic recount threshold, which triggers only when a race is within half a percentage point of the leader’s total — roughly 930 votes in this contest.
Laubacher, 57, is a retired two-star Navy rear admiral who served 34 years, from 1990 to 2024. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and intelligence officer, she served as the senior U.S. defense official and defense attaché to India from 2019 to 2022, then as senior director for South Asia on the National Security Council from 2022 until her retirement in 2024. A registered Republican for most of her adult life, she ran as the Democratic nominee and centered her campaign on affordability.
Boebert, 39, was first elected in 2020 from Colorado’s 3rd District, where she survived a 2022 recount fight by 546 votes. She switched to the more conservative 4th District in 2024 and won it with 53.6% of the vote. Monday’s projection denies her a fourth term. The 4th District, which covers Colorado’s Eastern Plains and fast-growing suburbs southeast of Denver, had not elected a Democrat since 2008.
The flip pads a Democratic House majority that was already settled. With Colorado’s 4th District projected Democratic, the incoming House stands at 255 Democrats and 162 Republicans, with 18 races still uncalled — 37 seats above the 218 needed for a majority.
In the Senate, Democrats and the independents who caucus with them hold 54 seats to Republicans’ 44, with two races — Alaska and Mississippi — still uncalled. Both chambers will be sworn in with the new Congress on Jan. 3, 2027.
House Republicans, headed for the minority, hold their leadership elections Tuesday, choosing between Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana after Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not seek the minority leader’s post. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is in line to become speaker in January.
Monday’s projection was the first call in the race by a national decision desk; other desks had not called the district as of Monday afternoon, and the results remain unofficial. Colorado voters have until Nov. 12 to cure ballot problems, counties are expected to finish tabulating around Nov. 13, and the state canvass follows later this month.
WATCH: Lauren Boebert projected to lose her Colorado seat as the House map shifts — our full report is in the video below.
