This story by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on March 28, 2024.
A group of Republicans in the Eastern Plains of Colorado chose former gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez as their nominee for an upcoming special election to replace former U.S. Representative Ken Buck in Congress.
Lopez won on the sixth round of voting against former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg with 51 votes, just over 52% of the share. Ninety-eight people were credentialed to vote Thursday at the special convention at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Hugo, about 20 miles southeast of Limon.
“What I heard today is that people want us to unite as a party. They want to make sure that we have a strong, conservative voice. It’s an honor to be selected to represent the 4th Congressional District,” Lopez told reporters after the vote.
The former mayor of Parker will now run against the Democratic nominee in the June 25 special election for the 4th Congressional District seat. Democrats will select their own nominee during a virtual special convention Monday. The district is the most Republican-leaning in the state, so Lopez will almost certainly win and serve the rest of Buck’s term until next January.
“I’m going to go there and do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability,” Lopez said, adding that he was surprised by the outcome.
The 4th District seat became empty when Buck, who was set to retire after his current term, resigned on March 22.
It was already an open primary for the Republican nomination for the general election, and seven of the primary candidates jumped in for the special nomination, hoping to get an early start to their time in Washington, D.C.
Instead, Republicans chose Lopez, who is not running for the primary nomination. This avoids a potentially confusing situation for voters who could have seen two ballots in June with the same candidate for the same seat, as the primary election to choose the Republican nominee in the general election is on the same day as the special election.
Also vying for the special election nomination on Thursday were Sonnenberg, former state lawmaker Ted Harvey, state Rep. Richard Holtorf, state Rep. Mike Lynch, Peter Yu, Scott Melbye, Chris Phelen and Floyd Trujilo.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who currently represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District and moved into the 4th District late last year to compete for the open seat, did not seek the special nomination on Thursday in order to finish out her current term. Instead, she will seek only the primary election victory.
Lopez’s victory could be an advantage for Boebert, since she will not be in the position of trying to convince voters to choose a Republican on the special election ballot but reject that same Republican in favor of her on the primary ballot.
Boebert has endorsements from former President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“We believe the vacancy committee made the right decision,” Drew Sexton, Boebert’s campaign manager, said. “I think there’s a lot of frustration from grassroots leaders here in the 4th District with Ken Buck’s selfish decision and how this would taint the entire process. Fortunately, Greg Lopez stepped up and offered an opportunity to end some of the frustration and division we saw over the last two weeks.”
Boebert wrote a letter to the delegates ahead of the vote, urging them to vote for a placeholder to “avoid giving an advantage to any one particular candidate over the other nine candidates already in the primary race, as well as avoid confusing Coloradans who will have both races on their ballot.”
Boebert and conservative radio host Deborah Flora have already qualified for the primary ballot.
Two of the candidates — Lopez and Melbye — pledged to be “placeholder” representatives and only complete the remainder of Buck’s term. Phelen said that if he won the special nomination, he would drop out of the primary. They contended that by not seeking the primary nomination, it would let district voters more fairly decide on Buck’s successor.
“I’m looking at it from a bigger perspective. I’m looking to be a strategic partner for whoever wins (the primary), because we need to make sure they win their race the way they plan to,” Lopez said. He did not say who he would support in the crowded primary field.
After a few rounds of voting, support began to coalesce around Lopez as that placeholder candidate. In the end, it came down to a contest between Sonnenberg and Lopez. Harvey, who was in the final three, urged his supporters to vote for Sonnenberg and reject the placeholder scheme, saying that the next six months in Congress could be extremely volatile. That elicited pushback from the Lopez supporters in the crowd.
“They didn’t do it to support the candidate Greg Lopez, they did it to support their own candidates who weren’t here tonight,” Harvey said of Lopez voters. “To suggest we send a placeholder to Washington, D.C., to represent 800,000 people is irresponsible.”
Lopez lost to Heidi Ganahl for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2022. He also ran for the nomination unsuccessfully in 2018.
He has had a couple of encounters with law enforcement over the years. In 1993, his wife called the police after an alleged domestic violence incident and the pair pleaded guilty to a harassment charge. In 2003, he was charged with driving under the influence. In 2020, he settled a lawsuit that alleged he tried to improperly influence actions of the Small Business Administration, where he was the Colorado director from 2008 until 2014. He declined to answer questions about his past on Thursday.
The 4th Congressional District includes most of Douglas County and the Eastern Plains.