Lauren Boebert’s replacement will deliver voters’ verdict on the grassroots MAGA brand

Khaki sleeves rolled up and safety goggles adjusted, Ron Hanks stares into the sight of a high-powered rifle before pulling the trigger on Colorado’s arid plains – ostensibly blowing up an office copier disguised as a voting machine in a video political campaign ad.

The attention-grabbing clip vaulted Hanks into headlines during his unsuccessful Senate campaign two years ago; now he’s followed it up with equally hard-nosed, gun-themed and solemn campaign ads – as the combat veteran vies to fill the seat being vacated by MAGA firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“I’m the only conservative in this race,” former Republican state representative Hanks tells The Independent. “And I’m the only conservative with a proven legislative record … look at my time in the state house, when I fought for the Second Amendment and I fought for election integrity and I fought for the unborn.”

This is the candidate endorsed by the central committee of the state GOP in the race to replace Boebert in a district she nearly lost to a Democrat two years ago – and a district she’s fled for a better shot at a seat across the state.

The brash congresswoman’s antics and increasingly outrageous scandals were largely blamed for her waning support among both CD3 Republican and unaffiliated constituents. Instead of endorsing a less controversial candidate upon her departure, however, the Colorado GOP has thrown its weight behind a veritable Boebert 2.0; Hanks is a self-described “pro-Trump warrior,” election denier and proud attendee of the Jan. 6 rally in DC. (He says, however, that he did not enter the Capitol.)

Boebert may have upped sticks to seek greener pastures eastward, but the brouhaha she’s left behind is following her same fractious brand of