Lauren Boebert abandoned her district and voters are rejoicing
The McDonald’s just off I-70 looms nearly as large in small-town Rifle life as it does in Rep. Lauren Boebert’s origin story. The Republican provocateur quit high school for a shift manager position here – to her mother’s horror, she writes in her memoir – and it’s also where at 16 she met her now-ex-husband, Jayson, then 22.
But on this sunny Friday, as diners flit in and out just before noon, the teen behind the cash register has no idea a congresswoman ever worked here. Less than a mile away, past two roundabouts and across the Colorado River, not a single constituent turns up at the mobile office hours held by Boebert’s staff at the library. And Shooters Grill, her former restaurant around the corner – famed for gun-strapped waitresses and a food poisoning scandal – has been replaced by a swankier Mexican eatery.
The long shadow cast by Boebert over Western Colorado is beginning to vanish in her backyard. And many within her constituency say that it can’t happen fast enough.
“She’s always in drama here in Rifle and Silt,” one 66-year-old, born and raised in the 3rd congressional district, tells The Independent as she lunches with her two young grandchildren in the McDonald’s play area.
“She’s not the most popular person anymore,” says the grandmother – who, like most people
