U.S. Rep. Ken Buck will leave Congress after next year’s election, he said Wednesday in an announcement that included barbs aimed at his own party and was likely to set off a scramble across eastern Colorado to succeed the Windsor Republican.
The five-term congressman cited “self-serving lies” from within his party as a factor in his decision to step down at the end of his current term. Buck, a former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, has recently clashed with members of the state party over claims about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Too many Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, describing Jan. 6 as an unguided tour of the Capitol and asserting the ensuing prosecutions were the weaponization of our justice system,” Buck said in a video statement released late Wednesday morning. “These insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans’ confidence in the rule of law.”
Buck, 64, also announced his decision during an interview on MSNBC around the same time. The decision had been rumored for months as Buck became a frequent voice of dissent within the party, frequently airing his frustrations in cable news interviews.
His impending exit is likely to upend the 2024 race to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. It covers much of the Eastern Plains as well as some communities in the outer reaches of south metro Denver, including Castle Rock.
An open congressional seat — especially one that stretches across a vast stretch of conservative territory, from Wyoming to Oklahoma — is sure to draw wide interest, especially in the Republican primary.
“I’d imagine that every person who had serious ambitions about running for CD4, and has the ability and financial resources, will more than likely be putting their name in the hat,” said state Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron, a member of Colorado House Republicans’ leadership team who was considering a primary challenge of Buck even before Wednesday’s announcement. “It will probably be a three- to five-person field, maybe even larger.”
In his video statement, Buck said Republicans needed to focus on pushing back against “the left’s policies” on immigration, public safety, energy and other issues.
“Americans are rightfully concerned about our nation’s future,” he said, “and are looking to Republicans in Washington for a course correction. But their hope for Republicans to take decisive action may be in vain. Our nation is on a collision course with reality, and a steadfast commitment to truth — even uncomfortable truths — is the only way forward.”
(Watch video.)
Other candidates strike different tone
But Holtorf is among potential GOP candidates who strike a different tone than Buck, backing former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican Party chairman who’s been critical of current party leadership, said he wasn’t surprised at Buck’s announcement. He didn’t read the retirement as a sign the party has given way fully to election conspiracies, even as he highlighted the pull those beliefs have.
“He’s right about (election denialism),” Wadhams said about Buck, “and that’s going on nationally and it’s definitely going on here in Colorado with a political party at its lowest ebbs since the 1930s.”
Current Colorado GOP chair Dave Williams responded to Buck’s announcement, writing to The Denver Post: “While we strongly disagree with his most recent actions like opposing the impeachment of Joe Biden or the election of Jim Jordan as Speaker, we wish him the best in his future endeavors and hope he will stop unfairly criticizing the Party he once helped lead.”
Buck served as a key vote to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy early last month.
He recently said he’d received death threats and an eviction notice for his Windsor office over his refusal to vote for Jordan, a Ohio congressman who’s been a prominent pusher of unfounded 2020 election claims, as a replacement for McCarthy. Last week, he joined Republicans in electing Rep. Mike Johnson as speaker. Johnson also played a role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but Buck argued that Jordan was more deeply involved.
Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat who previously served in the U.S. House, praised Buck’s time in office, despite their differences.
“Ken and I served together for four years in Congress and I’ve always appreciated his commitment to representing our great state,” Polis said in a statement. “I wish Ken the very best in whatever he does next and on behalf of Colorado, I thank him for his public service.”
The 4th Congressional District has leaned more Republican than any other district in the state, with the Cook Political Report last year giving it a partisan voting index score of R+13. That means that in recent presidential elections, the district performed 13 percentage points more Republican compared to the nation as a whole in terms of the two-party vote share.
Wadhams, like Holtorf, predicted a crowded field next year. It could prove an “interesting test,” he said, if the GOP primary pits candidates who echo Trump’s claims of fraud against those who don’t.
“Among the activists in the 4th district, that will be a popular position,” Wadhams said of election denial, including at the assembly to endorse a primary candidate. “I’m not sure that means a candidate like that will win the primary.”
Buck has critics on right and left
So far, Democrat Ike McCorkle, whom Buck handily defeated last year, has been raising money for another run, joined on that side by John Padora and Karen Breslin. Republicans Trent Leisy and Justin Schreiber also filed prior to Buck’s announcement, though neither has reported raising money yet.
Leisy, a small business owner and U.S. Navy veteran who aligns himself with Trump as an “America-first candidate,” has been a vocal critic of Buck in recent months.
“My RINO primary opponent, Ken Buck, just DROPPED OUT OF THE RACE over President Trump’s ACCURATE rigged election claims,” Leisy posted Wednesday on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
In an email to The Post, Leisy suggested Buck “has become out of touch with his constituents,” adding: “Those representatives who believe in the America First agenda are not the ones hurting this country, it is those who believe the American people should be put last … who are hurting this country, such as Rep. Ken Buck, who staunchly supported funding Ukraine.”
It’s likely the Republican field will expand. For Holtorf, Buck’s announcement, while not a surprise, prompted an “emergency meeting” of his exploratory committee to consider next steps, he said. He called Buck “unelectable in CD4.”
Holtorf’s website includes a slew of grievances with Buck, including the congressman’s praise for FBI Director Christopher Wray, skepticism of Congressional Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and statements affirming the 2020 election.
He also took a shot at Buck for reported statements about interest in working at CNN as a commentator. Buck has been a frequent guest on the network and other mainstream news programs.
The Colorado Democratic Party, for its part, also criticized Buck, underlining his increasingly lonely position in politics.
“We agree with Ken Buck that the Republican Party’s leadership has lost its way and has been taken over by extremists,” Colorado Democratic chair Shad Murib said in a statement. “However, as a member of the Freedom Caucus and a long-time architect of the extreme far-right Republican Party, Buck has no one to blame for this but himself.”
The statement cited Buck’s support for Johnson as speaker despite his earlier stand against election denialism, saying he “can’t have it both ways.”
Buck, a staunch conservative, served for about a decade as the Weld County district attorney. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010 against Sen. Michael Bennet. In 2014, he won his first election to Congress.
He called his service in the U.S. House “the greatest professional thrill and the highest honor of my life” in his video statement.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
