Democrat Eileen Laubacher has defeated Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, the Associated Press called on Friday. Lauren Boebert loses the seat she has held since 2024, in one of the biggest upsets of the 2026 midterm elections.
With about 99 percent of ballots counted, Laubacher led with 48.8 percent of the vote to Boebert’s 47.89 percent, a margin of 3,525 votes out of just under 385,000 cast. Libertarian Douglas Mangeris took 3.31 percent. The Associated Press called the race at 1 p.m. on Friday, ten days after polls closed on November 3, confirming that Lauren Boebert loses the seat.
The 4th District is the state’s reddest seat, and President Donald Trump won it by 18 points in 2024. Lauren Boebert loses a district that last sent a Democrat to Congress in 2008, when Betsy Markey won the seat and held it from 2009 to 2011. Colorado will now send seven Democrats and one Republican to the U.S. House.
Lauren Boebert loses a seat Trump won by 18 points
Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral, declared victory on Monday, November 9, after CNN projected her win. She attended orientation for new members of the House in Washington this week. Boebert said she would not run for the seat in 2028.
The margin of 0.91 percent is too wide to trigger an automatic recount under Colorado law, which requires a margin of 0.5 percent or less of the leading candidate’s total. The margin is wide enough that no automatic recount is triggered, and Lauren Boebert loses the seat outright. Counties must certify their results by November 25.
Laubacher lives in Highlands Ranch and won Douglas County, the district’s population center, by about 11 percentage points in the race Lauren Boebert loses. The district covers all or parts of 21 counties, including the Eastern Plains and the Loveland area. Douglas County is a Republican stronghold that has slowly been trending toward purple, Colorado Public Radio reported.
The race was among a handful of House contests that stayed undecided for more than a week after the November 3 election. The call came on Friday afternoon after county election officials posted final, unofficial vote totals.
How Laubacher won the race
Laubacher, a 34-year Navy veteran, made her military career and national security experience central to her campaign. She served in Afghanistan and India and spent time on the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden.
She was registered as a Republican until 2024, when she became unaffiliated, and changed her affiliation to Democrat in 2025. In May 2025 she announced she would seek the seat, and she raised $1.9 million in her first 54 days as a candidate, a fund-raising record for a challenger in the district.
Over the full campaign, Laubacher raised $13.7 million to Boebert’s $1.2 million in the race Lauren Boebert loses. Decision Desk HQ had rated the seat “likely Republican” before Election Day.
Laubacher is in the mold of moderate Democratic candidates with national security backgrounds who have won elections across the country during Trump’s tenure, Colorado Public Radio reported, including Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, who won his seat in 2018.
Lauren Boebert loses after six years in Congress
Boebert was first elected to the House in 2020, representing Colorado’s 3rd District. She survived the 2022 election by 546 votes, then moved to the 4th District in 2024 after redistricting, where she ran unopposed in the Republican primary this year.
She was one of President Trump’s most outspoken allies in the House. Lauren Boebert loses as the third Republican in the state’s congressional delegation to lose a reelection race this cycle, and her defeat leaves just one Republican in the state’s 10-member federal delegation.
What the result means for Colorado
The result came in a midterm election in which Democrats made gains across the country, and Colorado Public Radio described the outcome as part of a blue wave that “will drastically change the next Congress’ political makeup.” Laubacher is due to take her seat when the new Congress convenes in January 2027, when Lauren Boebert loses her place in the House.