Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is trailing Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher by roughly 2,500 votes as ballots are still being counted Thursday.
Colorado’s 4th Congressional District had been considered the state’s reddest seat. Ms. Boebert has held the seat since 2025.
Ms. Boebert previously represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District, which she won in 2020 and nearly lost in 2022 by fewer than 600 votes. She moved to the 4th in 2024 and won by about 11 percentage points. President Trump carried the district by more than 18 points that year.
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Heading into the 2026 midterms, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the district 9 percentage points more Republican than the national average, based on the 2020 and 2024 presidential results.
Ms. Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral, was a longtime Republican. She changed her party affiliation to unaffiliated in 2024 and registered as a Democrat in 2025. She served as a senior director for South Asia at the National Security Council under former President Joseph R. Biden and moved to the district two years ago.
“I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished,” she said at her election night watch party. “They told us that the district was too Republican.”
Ms. Boebert told supporters at her own watch party that she was not ready to give up.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to wait,” she said.
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