Colorado House Minority Leader Mike Lynch on Wednesday will officially toss his cowboy hat into the ring for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Ken Buck.
The second-term state representative and former U.S. Army officer is one of the highest-ranking elected Republicans in Colorado. He joins a crowded field for a rare open seat in Congress — a fray also joined last week by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican who’s seeking to switch districts.
The 4th Congressional District covers much of the Eastern Plains and curves around most of metro Denver, though it includes nearly all of Douglas County to the south. It’s the most staunchly Republican congressional district in the state.
“An opportunity like this doesn’t come around in Colorado politics but once in a political lifetime,” said Lynch, who lives in Wellington north of Fort Collins, in an interview ahead of his formal announcement. He called it an extension of public service that began when he joined the Army out of high school.
“I’ve had my eye on that seat for a long time,” he said. “That is, in essence, why I got involved in (politics) in the first place.”
Lynch’s candidacy has been widely speculated since Buck announced he would retire at the end of his current term. It adds another dose of intrigue to a race that so far includes state Rep. Richard Holtorf, who is Lynch’s No. 3 in the state House and a friend; former state Sens. Ted Harvey and Jerry Sonnenberg, now a Logan County commissioner; radio host Deborah Flora, who ran for the 2022 GOP nomination for U.S. Senate; and now Boebert, the candidate who undeniably has the most name recognition.
In all, there are nine Republicans and several candidates from other parties. The primary is in June.
Boebert’s entry is “unfortunate because of the political theater she brings to the race,” Lynch said. He said he was “shocked that anyone would have the hubris to make such a move. To assume that the state needs her so bad that she’d switch her constituent bases was shocking.”
Still, he added, he doesn’t see her entrance as reason to change his approach to the race.
Fentanyl and border security would be among his top priorities in Congress. Lynch draws on his advocacy in the state legislature for policies to combat the fentanyl crisis. And he frames border security not as an immigration issue but as a smuggling issue, with a need to reduce the strain on an overwhelmed border patrol by directing more resources to combat drugs and human trafficking.
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