Lauren Boebert, Eileen Laubacher appear in lone televised debate ahead of midterms

Democrat Eileen Laubacher said during a debate Monday night that if her party regains control of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections, it should not use that power to impeach President Donald Trump.

“I do not want us to waste two more years trying to impeach the president. I do not think that that is a good use of our time,” she said during a debate with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Windsor, whom she is running to unseat as the representative of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.

“I think it is important for people to be held responsible for the things that they do that are unlawful and unethical, and I hope that happens,” Laubacher added. “But I think that what we really need to do is to be a more effective Congress than we see right now.”

Her comments came in response to a question from moderator Kyle Clark of 9News about what Democrats should do, if anything, amid potential calls to investigate Trump and his administration during the next Congress. The debate was the only scheduled televised meeting between Laubacher and Boebert ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and thousands of voters in the district already have their mail-ballots.

Boebert is running for her second term in the district and her fourth term as a representative from Colorado. She previously served two terms in the 3rd Congressional District, representing the Western Slope, but moved across the state to her current district, which includes Douglas County and the Eastern Plains, following a near-defeat by her Democratic challenger in 2022. Boebert won the solidly-red seat in 2024 with 53.6% of the vote, but the congressional campaign arm of the Democratic Party is targeting the district this year as a possible flip.

Monday’s televised debate between two Colorado candidates for Congress was a relative rarity this election season. In the battleground 8th District, incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, did not agree to any televised debates, and met for their only scheduled face-to-face event in Berthoud last week. The race in the 3rd District is likewise set to have only a single, untelevised meeting between Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd and Aspen business owner Dwayne Romero — the two candidates shared a stage for 30 minutes at a Club 20 event last month — after Hurd declined an invitation to a televised debate.

Boebert touted some of her recent congressional accomplishments, such as securing funding for the Arkansas Valley Conduit through the House version of the Water Resources Development Act and advocating for disaster relief for sugar beet farmers. She said that since arriving to Washington, D.C. five years ago, she has worked on an approach to “disagree better,” and acknowledged that she is often one of the most outspoken members of Congress.

Laubacher is a first-time candidate and 34-year Navy veteran who retired as a rear admiral in 2024. She then served as senior director for South Asia at the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden. She is also a recent arrival to the district after moving there two years ago.

House Democrats want to win every Colorado congressional seat this year

On the war in Iran, Boebert said she “never wanted” the country to be involved, but stands by Trump’s decision as commander in chief, as well as her votes against multiple Democrat-led war powers resolutions that have passed the House of Representatives.

“I do agree that this is expensive, and I hear from Republicans, unaffiliated (voters) and Democrats that they want this to come to an end, and so do I,” she said. “We are having conversations with the Department of War and with the president on a regular basis about how to come to an end with this. A symbolic procedural vote put on by progressive Democrats is not going to be the answer.”

Laubacher pushed back, however, saying that Boebert’s votes against those resolutions contradict her job to “raise the voices” of the people in the district opposed to the war.

‘The loudest voices on both sides’

The candidates also sparred over Trump’s ongoing tariffs, with Boebert defending the president’s use of the trade policy as a “tool” to bring in revenue. Laubacher said she supports some, but not all tariffs.

“There are different kinds of tariffs that are effective, like pushing back on China to ensure our semiconductor industry has the opportunity to grow,” she said. “But the tariffs that we’re seeing right now — for example, the ones with Canada — those are not being paid by foreign governments. Those are being paid by Americans.”

They both said they oppose Trump’s plan to pause tariffs on beef from countries including Argentina and Brazil to bring the price down for consumers. The 4th District is home to most of Colorado’s ranching industry.

Laubacher was a longtime Republican and switched her party affiliation, first to unaffiliated, and then to Democratic in 2024. She defended that action by claiming her belief in personal liberties is currently found in the Democratic Party, and that the GOP she historically supported is “nearly unrecognizable.”

“Being registered a Republican or registered a Democrat, it doesn’t define me as an individual. I’ve always voted for a person, not a party,” she said. “I changed my party because my view of what the parties represented changed.”

She also defended her recent move into the district, saying she and her husband downsized to a house in a community they already interacted with — 10 miles, she said, from their former house in Littleton.

On Monday, Laubaucher gave Trump credit for stronger immigration policies at the southern border, and declined to name the “extremists” in the Democratic Party that one of her campaign advertisements alludes to.

“I believe that we have way more in common across the aisle than we do that separates us,” she said. “But I believe that the loudest voices on both sides are the ones that are making the most noise, and people think that that is what we should be listening to. And I do not think so.”