Shooter's Grill Owner Running For Colorado Congressional Seat

Rifle, Colorado resident and owner of Shooter’s Grill Lauren Boebert is throwing her hat in the ring and challenging GOP Rep. Scott Tipton in next year’s Republican primary, according to news reports out of Colorado.

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Boebert tells the Grand Junction Sentinel that she’ll be making her formal announcement Monday, and says she’s running because she feels like the 3rd Congressional District in the state that’s represented by Tipton is losing ground to the left.

“If I felt we were being actively represented the way that I believe that we should, I wouldn’t have rose up to take this step,” she told The Daily Sentinel in an interview. “I’ve been patiently waiting for active representation. I just feel like we are losing Colorado very quickly. It is absolutely being stolen from us by Democrats and this social agenda that’s sweeping our country.”

Boebert is well known in Garfield County as owner of Shooter’s Grill in Rifle, a restaurant that has drawn attention because she, her waitresses and other staff all openly carry sidearms.

That theme not only has brought her restaurant attention locally, but internationally. Its menu offers such items as sawed-off eggrolls, shotgun burritos and ballistic chicken.

You may remember Boebert from one of Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke’s campaign appearances in Colorado, where she challenged the congresscritter and told him “Hell no you’re not taking my gun.”

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That exchange with O’Rourke garnered Boebert a lot of publicity, but the candidate is already pretty well known in Colorado, particularly among gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. Boebert says, however, that she doesn’t want to be a single-issue candidate.

While she pointed to many anti-gun laws that the Colorado Legislature has passed in recent years, including the new extreme risk protection order law and laws restricting the size of gun magazines, Boebert said she’s running for federal office primarily because she believes Tipton has been too quiet on advancing conservative ideals statewide and nationally.

She also said Tipton rarely interacts with his constituents, doesn’t get many things of significance passed in Congress and holds few public events seeking voter input.

Scott Tipton did receive the NRA’s endorsement in the 2018 general election, earning an “A”-rating from the Second Amendment organization in his re-election bid. The former state lawmaker has represented the sprawling 3rd District since he won election back in 2010, but in 2018 Tipton only received  51.5% of the vote, which may indicate some discontent among voters.

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The 3rd District of Colorado encompasses the western third of the state, as well as a small portion of south-central Colorado. It’s a reliably red district that has voted Republican in every presidential race this century, though Democrat John Salazar represented the district for three terms before Tipton defeated him in the 2010 general election.

Primary fights against incumbents are usually pretty difficult affairs, but Boebert is hoping gun owners and Second Amendment supporters rally to her side. Keep your eyes on this race, because it could get interesting. Colorado’s GOP primary is June 30th, so expect things to heat up on the state’s western slope even in the chilly winter months as Boebert’s campaign takes shape.

 

 

 

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