QAnon backer Boebert wins Colorado House race

Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, who has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, has been projected as the winner of a House race in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning with 90 percent of precincts reporting. Boebert had 51 percent of the vote, while Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush had 46 percent

Mitsch Bush lost to Rep. Scott Tipton (R) by about 8 points in 2018.

Boebert won the GOP nomination earlier this year after defeating Tipton in the primary, scoring an upset victory against the five-term lawmaker.

But Boebert’s rise has been marked by controversy.

The conservative firebrand gained national recognition for her ownership of Shooters Grill, a restaurant that drew headlines for allowing its waiting staff to openly carry firearms.

Comments she made praising QAnon, the baseless conspiracy that President Trump is fighting a cabal of demonic government insiders running a pedophilia ring, later surfaced, drawing heightened scrutiny. 

“I am familiar with that,” she said on a right-wing internet show called “Steel Truth” in May. “Everything I’ve heard of Q — I hope this is real. Because it only means America is getting stronger and better and people are returning to conservative values.”

The Colorado Republican Party sought to distance Boebert from the QAnon theory after her victory, saying in an email to The Hill that she “has repeatedly disavowed it.”

“I think it is deeply misleading to readers to describe Lauren’s win in this way, especially considering she has repeatedly disavowed QAnon,” Colorado GOP Communications Director Joe Jackson said in an email to The Hill after the initial publication of this piece.

Updated: Wednesday 11:11 p.m.