Colorado Politics

Lauren Boebert says she’s joining conservative House Freedom Caucus

U.S. Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert said Thursday she plans to join the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus after the Rifle Republican is sworn into office on Sunday.

Founded in 2015, the House Freedom Caucus was initially aligned with the tea party and helped force House Speaker John Boehner to give up the gavel. Since President Donald Trump took office, the caucus has been among the president’s most vocal allies on Capitol Hill. A former chairman of the caucus, Mark Meadows, left the position earlier this year to become Trump’s chief of staff.

Boebert, who owns the gun-themed Shooters Grill restaurant in Rifle, where the waitstaff is armed, won election in Colorado’s sprawling 3rd Congressional District after defeating five-term U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the GOP primary.

Boebert will be joining fellow Colorado Republican and founding member of the House Freedom Caucus U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Windsor. The delegation’s other Republican member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, belonged for about a year but quit the caucus in 2016, The Gazette reported.

The House Freedom Fund, a PAC associated with the caucus, spent more than $130,000 supporting Boebert’s campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

While the House Freedom Caucus doesn’t release a roster of its members, members are free to acknowledge they belong. Heading into the 2020 election, the caucus reportedly counted about three dozen members, with another seven or eight potential members among Republicans who were first elected in November.

Boebert is one of about two dozen current and incoming House Republicans who say they’ll object to the Electoral College results when Congress convenes on Wednesday to certify Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump in the November election.

She also generated headlines during new-member orientation when she asked Capitol Police about carrying her gun on Capitol grounds.

A spokeswoman told Colorado Politics Boebert will also join the conservative Congressional Western Caucus, a group of House Republicans that bills itself as “the voice for local communities, pursuing the interests of the folks on the ground and people who feel betrayed by a federal government out of touch with our values.” Buck and Lamborn are also members.

In this file photo, Lauren Boebert, the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Colorado’s vast 3rd Congressional District, during a freedom cruise staged by her supporters Friday, Sept. 4, 2020, in Pueblo West. Boebert won election to Congress and will be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2021.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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