Boebert had switched districts after Buck announced his impending retirement to avoid a stiff challenge from Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd district, but Buck’s immediate departure will set up a special election in which the state Republican and Democratic parties will choose a nominee – and there’s no guarantee they’ll pick the controversial Boebert.
Further complicating matters, Boebert would have to resign her seat in the 3rd district to run in that special election because Colorado law prohibits a candidate from running for more than one office at a time, and her resignation would set up yet another U.S. House special election before the end of the year.
I think this latest shift to being almost explicitly pro-Russia is going to give pause to a small but noticeable number of of young boomer and Gen X republicans. Fighting Russian hegemony was literally the main foreign policy goal of all US administrations from 1946 to 1990, and it was always a huge talking point that Reagan “beat the Soviets.”
Then, domestically, there’s a move to no longer try to “win” debates in congress and get concessions from the other side, but to simply obstruct. The latest, frankly draconian, immigration bill should have been a huge win for Republicans, successfully locking in some extremely xenophobic policies, and all mostly to release Ukraine and Israel funds that proper Israel-loving Cold Warriors should want anyway! The fact that THIS bill got killed shows there’s no longer an attempt to win “normal” American politics, but to play some other, even scarier game.