House Republican Lauren Boebert is polling 14 points behind potential Democratic rival Ike McCorkle in a hypothetic matchup for Colorado's 4th Congressional District according to a survey conducted on behalf of his campaign.
The poll found McCorkle, a former Marine, would get 41 percent of the vote against 27 percent for Boebert—with another 33 percent of voters undecided.
In December 2023, Boebert, a Donald Trump-supporting GOP hardliner who represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District in the House, announced she wanted to run for the state's traditionally more conservative 4th District in a surprise move. Boebert said she made the move seeking a "fresh start" after a "pretty difficult year for me and my family," but critics argued she was worried about losing to Democrat Adam Frisch—who she narrowly beat by around 500 votes in November 2022.
The survey McCorkle commissioned was of 423 likely voters in Colorado's 4th District, conducted by Gravis Marketing from May 22-May 24 both online and by text. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percent.
McCorkle's survey also found Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential contender, had a healthy lead over President Biden in a presidential contest between the two rivals.
Trump led Biden by 45 percent to 35 percent, with another six percent of voters backing independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and 14 percent undecided.
Speaking to Colorado Politics, McCorkle said the poll showed he could defeat Boebert later this year.
He said: "All across District 4, we hear the same message from voters across party lines: extremism in Washington is the No. 1 threat to our democracy, and our campaign is the one to fight it and win.
"Our team's hard work across this district has already doubled our lead over Lauren Boebert, while other Democrats in this race are still 10 points behind her. The math is clear; we are the only Democratic campaign that will be successful in November."
Newsweek contacted Boebert and McCorkle for comment on Thursday outside of usual office hours.
Boebert announced her intention to switch district after Republican Ken Buck, who had represented Colorado's 4th District in the House, announced he wouldn't be seeking reelection in November. Buck later resigned his seat and a special election is due to be held on June 25 though Greg Lopez, the Republican candidate, isn't seeking to defend the seat in November if he wins—giving Boebert an opportunity.
To secure the Republican nomination for Colorado's 4th District in November Boebert will have to defeat state representatives Mike Lynch and Richard Holtorf, ex-state senator Jerry Sonnenberg, business owner Peter Yu and former talk radio presenter Deborah Flore. For the Democratic nomination McCorkle is running against engineer John Padora and ex-speechwriter Trisha Calvarese, who will also contest the special election in June.
Boebert has a long history of courting controversy and in September 2023 was asked to leave a performance of the Beetlejuice musical in Denver along with a male companion after becoming disruptive. The congresswoman later apologized for her actions saying she "fell short of my values."
Earlier this month Boebert was one of a number of Republican politicians who attended Trump's New York hush money trial in New York as a show of solidarity, prompting criticism from The Colorado Sun columnist Matt Littwin, who labeled her "sycophantic."
Correction: 6/22/24, 1:36 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to reflect that McCorkle would get 41 percent of the vote instead of 43 percent.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
