DENVER: Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, a stretch of ski resorts, national forest, ranches, coal towns and desert mesas the size of Pennsylvania, has long bred low-key politicians.
Its voters have skewed slightly to the right, prized practicality and for years rewarded representatives for accomplishments that fall below the national radar, such as the Hermosa Creek Watershed Act, a crowning achievement of former Republican Rep. Scott Tipton.
Until now.
The district’s newest representative, Republican Lauren Boebert, is an unabashed, social media-savvy loyalist of former President Donald Trump who, like her fellow first-term colleague GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, is stoking controversy with her far-right views and defiant actions. But unlike Greene, Boebert doesn’t hail from an overwhelmingly GOP, safe district.
That makes Boebert a test case for whether even a slight partisan advantage will inevitably empower the most extreme elements of a party. The…