Denver, Colorado: Rep. Lauren Boebert Trails Eileen Laubacher in 4th District, Race Uncalled

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert trails Democrat Eileen Laubacher in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, one of the last House races still uncalled after the midterm elections. The Associated Press put Laubacher at 49.2 percent and Boebert at 47.7 percent on Wednesday morning, with about 83 percent of the vote counted, and listed the race as too early to call.

The count on Wednesday morning

The AP count showed Laubacher with 168,729 votes to 163,835 for Boebert, a lead of 4,894 votes. Colorado Public Radio, working from state returns with about 90 percent of the vote counted, put the lead at about 5,400 votes. The two snapshots differ because counties report in batches, and ballots from Douglas County and the rural eastern counties were still moving the margin overnight.

Boebert ended her election night watch party in Windsor without conceding, according to Colorado Public Radio reporters at the event. Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral, had not declared victory either. County clerks kept counting on Wednesday, and the race stays uncalled while the margin sits inside the ballots still to be counted.

A seat Republicans expected to hold

The 4th District covers Colorado's Eastern Plains and fast growing suburbs southeast of Denver, and Colorado Public Radio calls it the reddest seat in the state. Boebert won two terms in the neighboring 3rd District first, holding it in 2022 by 546 votes, then switched districts in 2024 rather than face a rematch on the Western Slope. She is seeking a fourth term in the House.

A Laubacher win would flip a seat that forecasters rated as leaning Republican before election day. It would also make Boebert one of the best known Republican incumbents to lose on a night when Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate.

What happens next

Control of the House is already settled, so the 4th District result will set the size of the Democratic majority rather than decide it. Clerks in the district's 21 counties continue to count ballots received by election day, and a call is unlikely until the remaining vote can no longer change the outcome. If the final margin lands close enough, Colorado law can require a recount, which would push a certified result further into November.