Greg Lopez wins special election to fill out remainder of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term

Greg Lopez speaks during the Republican special nomination convention for Colorado's 4th Congressional District in Hugo on March 28, 2024. (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)

Two-time former Colorado governor candidate Greg Lopez won the special election in the state’s 4th Congressional District and will serve the remainder of former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s term in the 118th Congress.

Lopez defeated Democrat Trisha Calvarese and two other minor-party candidates in Tuesday’s contest, which coincided with Colorado’s primary elections, according to The Associated Press . With 127,894 ballots counted as of 7:30 p.m., Lopez led with 57% of the vote to Calvarese’s 36%.

The 4th District includes Douglas County and much of Colorado’s Eastern Plains. After taking office, Lopez will represent the district until a new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.

Tuesday’s special election for the vacant seat was the first of its kind to be held in Colorado in more than 40 years.

Buck, who had already announced his retirement after nine years in Congress, resigned his seat in March, in what was viewed as a carefully timed move to allow a small committee of Republican Party insiders to select a probable successor. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who announced in December that she would move across the state to run in the 4th District, could not seek the special election nomination without resigning her current 3rd District seat, and denounced Buck’s move as a “swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election.”

But weeks later, at Boebert’s urging, a special convention of 97 Republican delegates in the 4th District nominated Lopez , a self-described “placeholder” candidate who would not compete in the crowded GOP primary for the opportunity to win a full term.

Boebert was declared the winner of the 4th District’s six-way Republican primary on Tuesday, and will be heavily favored to win in the November general election.

Lopez, who served as mayor of the Denver suburb of Parker for one term in the 1990s, has lent his support this year to a series of anti-LGBTQ ballot measures pushed by far-right activists, and has repeatedly spread debunked conspiracy theories alleging widespread fraud in the 2020 election. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in both 2018 and 2022.

After serving as Colorado director of the Small Business Administration from 2008 until 2014, Lopez was accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of attempting to improperly influence the agency’s handling of a loan guarantee for a hotel business owned by a friend. He agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a civil action brought by federal prosecutors over the allegations. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a harassment charge after his wife called the police following an alleged domestic violence incident.

Democrats nominated Calvarese, a first-time candidate and former communications staffer for the AFL-CIO and the National Science Foundation. Calvarese was also a candidate in the district’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, where she narrowly led Marine veteran Ike McCorkle and addiction recovery advocate John Padora in early, unofficial results.

Libertarian Party nominee Hannah Goodman and Approval Voting Party nominee Frank Atwood also appeared on the special election ballot.

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