{"id":48454,"date":"2021-02-18T18:08:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T01:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seventh-democrat-announces-bid-to-unseat-lauren-boebert\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:42:46","slug":"seventh-democrat-announces-bid-to-unseat-lauren-boebert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seventh-democrat-announces-bid-to-unseat-lauren-boebert\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventh Democrat announces bid to unseat Lauren Boebert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado state Rep. Donald Valdez on the first day of Colorado\u2019s 73rd legislative session Jan. 13 at the Colorado Capitol in Denver.<\/span>Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

State Rep. Donald Valdez is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert next year, becoming the seventh Democrat and the second state lawmaker to jump into the 3rd Congressional District race.<\/p>\n

Valdez, who lives in La Jara, briefly ran for the seat during the 2020 election cycle before abruptly exiting the contest, citing threats to the aquifer in the San Luis Valley and the need to fight them at the statehouse. That issue remains unresolved, but Valdez says he felt compelled to run for Congress again because of how Boebert\u2019s first weeks in Congress have gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the rhetoric that\u2019s coming from Boebert, I can\u2019t sit here and not engage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Valdez, who is in his fifth year at the Colorado Capitol after winning re-election in November to his third two-year term, is a controversial figure in the Colorado House Democratic caucus, sometimes clashing with his colleagues.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he made a speech on the chamber floor calling for an investigation into state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Fremont County Republican, who flew to Washington, D.C., to attend a Jan. 6 rally hosted by then-President Donald Trump that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Valdez was gaveled down by House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, who said Valdez\u2019s comments and actions were inappropriate because they were made during a time allotted for casual announcements.<\/p>\n

Valdez told The Colorado Sun his floor speech this week was \u201ctotally separate\u201d from his announcement Thursday that he\u2019s running for Congress again.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sol Sandoval, a Democratic community organizer and social worker from Pueblo, filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commissions on Wednesday to launch her candidacy.<\/p>\n

Already running in the 3rd District Democratic primary are:<\/p>\n

State Sen. Kerry Donovan<\/em>Gregg Smith<\/em>Naziha Karima In\u2019am Hadil<\/em>Root Routledge<\/em>Colin Wilhelm<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Boebert\"
Boebert<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Boebert\u2019s headline-grabbing start to her congressional tenure has prompted a number of Democrats to announce efforts to defeat her next year. It\u2019s unclear what the 3rd District will look like in 2022 as Colorado\u2019s congressional districts are slated to be redrawn this year.<\/p>\n

Donovan and Valdez are both planning to continue serving in the Colorado Capitol during their congressional campaigns.<\/p>\n

Valdez wouldn\u2019t commit to ending his campaign if La Jara is drawn out of the 3rd District during the redistricting process. \u201cI will analyze the situation at that time and make a decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donovan lives in Vail, which is just outside of the 3rd District\u2019s boundaries, but owns a ranch in Wolcott that is within the district. Most of her state Senate district spans the 3rd District.<\/p>\n

Members of Congress don\u2019t have to live in the district they represent as long as they live in the state the district is in.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, is also weighing whether to jump into the already-crowded primary.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. Donald Valdez felt compelled to run: \u2018I can\u2019t sit here and not engage\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,394,233,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87389,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48454\/revisions\/87389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48454"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}