Lauren Boebert blames ‘Hollywood elites’ for decision to switch districts

The far-right Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has blamed “Hollywood elites” including singer Barbra Streisand and actor Ryan Reynolds for her decision to switch districts ahead of her 2024 re-election campaign.

In an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast over the weekend, Boebert alluded to how her Democratic opponent Adam Frisch’s campaign had received a $1,000 donation from Streisand in April and a $500 contribution from Reynolds in March.

Those sums combine for approximately 0.03% of the $7.7m Frisch’s campaign has raised – compared with his Republican opponent’s $2.4m – since he narrowly lost against Boebert during the 2022 midterm election.

Nonetheless, as she has done before, Boebert singled out the donations from Welcome to Wrexham’s Reynolds and Streisand – an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner – as evidence that “Hollywood is trying to buy their way into Congress” at her expense.

Boebert said her 27 December announcement that she intended to relocate from Colorado’s third congressional district to the fourth and seek election there was meant to “defend and advance conservative principles”.

“We need a strong voice there, and we have to shut down the Hollywood elites who are trying to buy my current seat,” Boebert said to Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House adviser who is appealing a prison sentence given to him for his refusal to cooperate with the US House committee that investigated the January 6 US Capitol attack.

“It’s coming from Hollywood when you have Barbra Streisand coming in and donating to the Democrat, when you have Ryan Reynolds coming in and donating to the Democrat.”

The Cook Political Report categorized the fourth district where Boebert is headed as “solidly Republican”. Its