‘The cattle come first’: Ranch emergency pulls Lauren Boebert’s rival off the campaign trail during final stretch

On the eastern plains of the Centennial State, a very unique political battle is playing out. Representative Lauren Boebert, the headline-generating second-term congresswoman and right-wing culture warrior, is up for “re-election” — just not for her own seat.

She’s competing in a crowded Republican primary for the seat currently held by Ken Buck, a retiring member of the House Freedom Caucus. The seat is a comfortably conservative district, a change of pace from Boebert’s current district, the third, which is across the state in Colorado’s mountains and includes the more liberal ski town of Aspen.

It’s that image of a conservative bulwark that clearly attracted Boebert to the 4th district, rather than seek re-election in the 3rd.

The congresswoman is beset by scandal stemming from her lewd behavior with a date during a live production of Beetlejuice earlier this year and was at severe risk of losing her seat in Congress to the Democrats in a general election after having only won re-election two years earlier by less than 600 votes.

But sometimes, it’s difficult to balance a run for office with one’s personal life.

For Boebert’s opponent Richard Holtorf, that meant a last-minute departure from the campaign trail — right on the eve of congressional primaries across the state.

Holtorf, a member of the General Assembly, and Jerry Sonnenberg, a state senator, are hammering Boebert on her penchant for embarrassing news cycles as the race enters its final hours, hoping that voters have tired of her antics in front of the cameras.

The two men are perhaps what you’d most expect a Republican politician from the eastern plains to look like. Both ranchers, Sonnenberg frequently appears in photos wearing his signature cowboy hat; Holtorf, meanwhile, has trekked across the district in a cattle truck emblazoned with Donald Trump signs.

And it was a dose of real-world problems in the 4th district that threatened to end Holtorf’s campaigning entirely in the home stretch. He faced controversy after a TV interview when he was asked about pushing for abortion restrictions after paying for one 20 years earlier. Then, just a few days after he had complained about Boebert’s failure to support water retention facilities in the state (with freshwater access a major issue for ranchers and farms), he had to leave the trail because of a familiar issue — the wells ran dry.

His campaign confirmed to The Independent on Sunday that he would be suspending any campaigning or events as he dealt with the emergency at the ranch.

“The water table has dropped and the pasture wells are not pumping water,” campaign official Rhonda Brandt explained. “Richard has 1,000 cattle in the feedlot plus his own herd… The cattle have to have water, and the cattle come first.”

She added that it was an example of how Holtorf was the “only non-politician of the top four candidates”, calling his service in the state legislature “secondary”.

“If nothing else, he will be driving a water truck to keep thousands of [cattle] from dying.”

Temperatures were in the mid-90s across the 4th district on Monday as the candidates entered the final hours of the primary. Only a few were active — Sonnenberg continued to hold events and had more scheduled for Tuesday, while Mike Lynch was spotted door-knocking across the district too.

Later on Monday, Brandt spoke to The Independent again and gave an update on the ranch’s troubles.

“He is still hauling water and now a bad prairie fire has broken out that he is helping to [fight that] south of his ranch,” she said, providing images of a smoke-filled landscape and charred grass. “So not only is Richard a cattleman, water engineer, and water truck driver today, he is also a firefighter.”

Boebert remains favored to win Tuesday’s primary. Backed by both Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the congresswoman has a clear money advantage in the race (to the tune of a few million dollars), as well as national name recognition.

She also has the advantage of a split field, with none of her challengers being able to claim themselves as her main rival and a general sense from some in the district that her enemies had failed to consolidate around one candidate.

“It’s going to be a tough race, and we’ll see what horse crosses the finish line first. I have no predictions,” said Holtorf in an interview. “There’s a lot of people out here that do not like Boebert, nor do they want her to be our Congresswoman in the eastern plains, and I mean everywhere. So if you think she’s got some little [poll] blowing sunshine up her skirt, she might want to be a little careful with that.”

On Tuesday, Boebert will face the music once again. If she does win, it will be a case study in missed opportunities — rarely are campaigns handed such a wealth of opposition research to pick from.

It will also be a statement about what the modern Republican Party will tolerate from its electeds, even as it seems clear no one else will.