A Democrat who is hoping to secure the party’s candidacy for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District said his campaign has benefited since House Republican Lauren Boebert announced she also plans to run for the seat in November.
John Padora Jr., who said Boebert’s district switch has resulted in him receiving more donations over three weeks than in the proceeding year, is bidding to replace Representative Ken Buck, the GOP incumbent who announced he won’t be seeking reelection, claiming “too many Republicans are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen” in a parting shot at his colleagues.
Boebert, who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, caused a sensation on January 5 when she revealed she will run in the traditionally more conservative 4th District in November, saying the move is “the right decision for me personally, and it is the right decision for those who support our conservative movement.”
Padora Jr. told Newsweek he was “completely blindsided” by Boebert’s decision, adding: “When the news broke, our campaign team was a little bit in disarray and disbelief. There wasn’t really a whole lot of whispers of that from any front—inside the party, outside the party, local chatter. It really, really caught everybody by surprise. Nobody quite expected it, for sure.”
Anna Moneymaker/GETTY
Condemning Boebert’s move as “disingenuous and opportunistic,” the Democrat added: “I though this is someone who is so desperate to stay in power that she’s willing to run away from her values, abandon the people who elected her in the first place just to become a career politician and I really thought that she highlighted everything that’s wrong with Washington.”
Branding Boebert “disingenuous” and “a carpetbagger,” Padora Jr. admitted that her move could help him, saying: “I believe if Boebert is the Republican nominee, our chances of winning this district become a very, very real possibility despite the historic conservative advantage in this district.”
Newsweek has reached out to Boebert by email for comment.
In a video explaining her decision to switch districts, Boebert claimed she was the victim of a dark-money campaign in her current seat.
“I will not allow dark money that is directed at destroying me personally to steal this seat,” she said. “It’s not fair to the 3rd District and the conservatives there who have fought so hard for our victories…The Aspen donors, George Soros and Hollywood actors that are trying to buy this seat, well, they can go pound sand.”
Boebert secured reelection in the 3rd District in November 2022 by just 546 votes in an unexpectedly close race against Democrat Adam Frisch.
In June 2023, Frisch, who had already announced he is running again, told Newsweek he was confident he could defeat Boebert in a rematch.
“There are three times as many people out there in our district who do not want to vote for her, they just want to make sure I am a safe enough alternative to her,” he said.
Padora Jr., called for widespread drug policy reform, having previously spoken publicly about how opioid addiction “cost me my career, my dignity, and almost my marriage, my children, and everything I love.
“I think that our drug policy is a complete failure and I think that until we acknowledge that locking non-violent human beings in cages for abusing opioids is not a winning strategy. I think we really need to lean in to complete decriminalization, create controversial things like safe injection sites in some of these more densely populated areas.
“if the goal is to keep people alive and keep people out of jail we have to completely restructure our criminal justice system from the top to the bottom and that starts with adopting Portugal style complete drug decriminalization here in America and kind of pulling us away from that 1980s Reagan era ‘Just Say No’ abstinence that we’ve kind of preached into our children.”
Padora Jr. admitted he had concerns about President Joe Biden being the Democratic Party candidate again as he “watched a lot of the young voters and activists who got him elected in 2020 kind of walk away.
“I do wish the Democratic Party would have allowed an open primary this time to possibly select another candidate rather than Biden.”
However he expressed confidence that voters in November will “recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses to our democracy,” if he is selected as the GOP candidate, and “defeat him once again.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.