‘The cattle come first’: Ranch emergency pulls Lauren Boebert’s rival off the campaign trail on primary eve

Sometimes, it’s difficult to balance a run for office with one’s personal life.

For Richard Holtorf, it meant a last-minute departure from the campaign trail — right on the eve of congressional primaries across the state of Colorado.

On the eastern plains of the Centennial State, a very unique political battle is playing out. Rep Lauren Boebert, the headline-generating second-term congresswoman and conservative culture warrioris up for “re-election” — just not for her own seat. She’s competing in a crowded Republican primary for the seat currently held by Ken Buck, a retiring member of the House Freedom Caucus. The seat is a comfortably conservative district, a change of pace from Boebert’s current district, the third, which is across the state in Colorado’s mountains and includes the ski town of Aspen.

It’s that image of a conservative bulwark that clearly attracted Boebert to the 4th district, rather than seek re-election in the 3rd.

The congresswoman is beset by scandal stemming from her lewd behavior with a date during a live production of Beetlejuice earlier this year and was at severe risk of losing her seat in Congress to the Democrats in a general election after having only won re-election two years earlier by less than 600 votes.

Holtorf, a member of the General Assembly, and Jerry Sonnenberg, a state senator, are hammering the congresswoman on her penchant for embarrassing news cycles as the race enters its final hours, hoping that voters have tired of her antics in front of the cameras.

The two men are perhaps what you’d most expect a Republican politician from the eastern plains to look like. Both ranchers, Sonnenberg frequently appears in photos wearing his signature cowboy hat; Holtort, meanwhile, has