A TALE OF TWO DISTRICTS

Lauren Boebert and Colorado’s red-blue divide.

- PETER HESSLER

On Election Night of 2024, shortly before nine o’clock, Representative Lauren Boebert ascended a small stage at the Grainhouse, a sports bar in Windsor, Colorado. Windsor, part of the state’s Fourth Congressional District, is situated on Colorado’s agricultural northern plains, and the bar was housed in a massive metal grain bin. A bright-green John Deere 237 corn picker stood next to the stage. Boebert, who had moved to the district earlier in the year, wore a tightly fitted blue suit with red lining, a white shirt, a pair of silver stiletto heels, and a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap that had been signed on the brim in Sharpie by President Donald Trump. It had been less than two hours since the Colorado polls had closed, and most news organizations would not call the Presidential race until after midnight. But Trisha Calvarese, Boebert’s opponent for a seat in the House of Representatives, had already conceded.

“The swamp, they thought I would fail!” Boebert shouted to more than two hundred supporters. “But you all welcomed me to Windsor, Colorado. And, rather than failing, I think it’s kind of like an A-plus with extra credit with this G.E.D. right here!”