Eileen Laubacher widened her lead over Lauren Boebert on Thursday evening as updated results put the Democrat ahead by 3,024 votes in Colorado's 4th Congressional District. With 97% of votes counted as of 7 p.m. Thursday, Laubacher held 48.8% to Boebert's 47.9%, leaving the race too close to call but moving further away from the automatic recount line.
That is why the result is getting attention now: the latest count arrived with only a sliver of ballots still outstanding, and the margin already sat well outside the 920-vote threshold that would trigger an automatic recount. Boebert, who now lives in Windsor after moving from the 3rd Congressional District and winning the seat in 2024, had said Wednesday she hoped Election Day ballots would break her way. She told 9News, “This doesn't define me,” and added, “I'm a mom, I'm a granny and I'm a believer. We're going to continue moving, faith to faith, glory to glory.”
Laubacher, a former Republican and retired Navy rear admiral who moved to Highlands Ranch with her husband two years ago, has run as a moderate who says she does not fit neatly into either party. She has also benefited from a race in which she significantly outraised Boebert and carried Larimer, Douglas and Arapahoe counties, while Boebert led in most rural counties, including Weld. The district spans the Eastern Plains and parts of metro Denver, including Douglas County, and it was last won by a Democrat in 2008.
The numbers also create a problem for Boebert's side. Scott Gessler said the campaign was fighting for every vote and investigating some very unusual voting patterns, but he also said it expected the election to head to a recount one way or another. That expectation sits uneasily beside the math: a 3,024-vote gap is far beyond the 920 votes needed for an automatic recount, and a recount would have to find a meaningful change in the remaining uncounted ballots to alter the result.
For now, Laubacher has the clearest path to the seat, even if the race is not formally settled. The unanswered question is not whether the margin is close enough for an automatic recount; it is whether anything left to count can still erase a lead that has already widened with most of the vote in.
