After being asked who'd been arrested, Lauren Boebert and most of her Colorado primary competitors raised their hands to applause
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
- Rep. Lauren Boebert and her GOP competitors were asked to raise their hands if they'd been arrested.
- Boebert was one of six congressional hopefuls in the district to raise their hands.
- She said her arrest was over a traffic violation when it was for skipping a court-ordered hearing.
At her first primary debate in the new Colorado district where she's running for office, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and five other candidates smiled and raised their hands when asked who'd ever been arrested.
A recording of the moment was shared online by a reporter from the Denver Westword. In it, as Boebert and the majority of her competition raise their hands, the crowd can be seen clapping and heard loudly cheering.
Given the opportunity at the debate to elaborate on her arrest, Boebert said hers was "just a simple traffic violation that was unpaid."
That's not entirely true.
The Colorado Times Recorder, a local publication, reported Friday morning the lawmaker was arrested in 2016 after she skipped a court hearing she was required to go to after she rolled her truck into a ditch on a rural road.
The Recorder added that she was arrested one year earlier on a disorderly-conduct charge after she was accused of encouraging underage drinkers who had been arrested at a music festival to break free from police custody and repeatedly saying she had "friends at Fox News" who'd report on the "illegal" apprehension.
After narrowly losing to her in 2022, the Democratic congressional candidate Adam Frisch raised more than $7 million in 2023 alone in an attempt to unseat her in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District.
At the end of December, Boebert announced she'd run for reelection, though this time in the 4th Congressional District to try to replace outgoing Rep. Ken Buck.
Boebert had made headlines in September after she and her partner were kicked out of a performance of "Beetlejuice" in Denver for singing during the show, recording it with her phone, and vaping in the theater.
In the days following the incident, security-camera footage from inside the venue was published by 9News, which appeared to show her date groping her throughout the show.