A Colorado Democrat raked in more than $750,000 in the month since winning her party’s primary, The Post has learned, as her Republican opponent Lauren Boebert faces a fundraising crunch.
The campaign for House Democratic candidate Trisha Calvarese will announce the fundraising haul on Thursday — weeks after her June 25 primary victory over Marine veteran Ike McCorkle.
As of the end of that month after expenses, the Boebert campaign recorded nearly $530,000 cash on hand, according to FEC filings, compared with Calvarese’s more than $100,000.
By the end of July with the $750,000 donation windfall, the Calvarese campaign claims to have nearly quadrupled its war chest, leaving it with upwards of $380,000 after using the rest on expenses.
The contribution numbers are a bright spot for the Democrat, but she still faces an uphill battle to defeat Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
As of 2022, the district leaned 13 points in favor of Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Internal polls from opposing campaigns, however, are showing the 2024 race could be closer than in the past.
A Keating Research poll paid for by the Calvarese campaign showed the Democrat ahead of her Republican opponent, 47% to 38%, after voters who were surveyed heard “concerns about Boebert and positives for Calvarese,” according to a memo first reported by Politico.
In a head-to-head matchup without hearing concerns, however, Boebert trounced Calvarese 49% to 37%.
More than 10% of voters polled still remain undecided in both cases.
Another Democratic internal poll before McCorkle’s loss in the primary showed him up 41% to 27%, though at least 33% were undecided.
Both 2024 House candidates are running in the 4th district for the first time, with Calvarese having served in the federal government at the National Science Foundation but not public office before.
Her campaign website gestures toward bipartisanship by touting her work in that role for “a Trump nominee” — but also notes her union ties and pledge to “expand access to reproductive and maternal care.”
Boebert’s political brand as an unapologetic, gun-toting bar owner turned firebrand conservative representative will still be a tough one to beat in the largely rural district — even as a series of embarrassing stories have surfaced in the past year.
She declined to represent the state’s 3rd district after narrowly winning a second term in office, defeating Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes in 2022.
Keating Research also accurately predicted that tight race outcome.
Despite both districts leaning Republican, Frisch in December had amassed a campaign war chest three times the size of Boebert’s in an anticipated rematch for 2024.
The seat in the 4th district opened up after Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) retired.
That switch also came after her “unruly” behavior at a Denver production of the musical “Beetlejuice” in September 2023, where she was caught vaping and groping her date before being ejected.
Boebert’s principal campaign committee the same month recorded more than $1.4 million in its campaign war chest, which has declined since then to just over half a million — with more than $500,000 being siphoned from PACs and other committees
