Have voters really fallen out of love with Lauren Boebert?

Some voters in Colorado may be experiencing buyer’s remorse brought on by the actions, and inaction, of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.

The gun-toting restaurant owner-turned politician has made a splash since she arrived in Washington, for good or ill. Though she made initial headlines by carrying a gun into the US Capitol and challenging Beto O'Rourke on firearms during a speech he was making, her notoriety skyrocketed during and in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

Just before the attack, Ms Boebert claimed that some of her own constituents were outside the building. During the attack she tweeted that "Today is 1776" and revealed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been removed from the inner chambers of the Capitol. Since then she has been a perennial target for scorn from liberals and a loyal patriot to the remnants of the MAGA movement.

But what has she done for Coloradans?

That's the question irking some of her constituents, according to a recent report from Politico.

Colorado state Senate president Leroy Garcia, a Democrat from the city of Pueblo, said voters were ready to say goodbye to Ms Boebert.

"People here feel Boebert doesn't represent their values," he said. "There is a lot of passion around seeing her removed."

There may be some truth to that, though Ms Boebert still remains extremely popular with Republican voters in her district. The Colorado Sun reported that Democratic pollster Global Strategy Group found that 72 per cent of Republican voters in her district had a favorable view of her.

If Democrats and spurned Republicans who wish to see Ms Boebert out of office hope to succeed, they will have to rely on the "unaffiliated" voters of the district, including the residents of reliably purple Pueblo.

Coloradans are automatically categorized as unaffiliated voters when they register to vote at age 18, but can later change to a party affiliation if they wish.

Unaffiliated voters dislike Ms Boebert more than they like her – but only by a hair. While 36 per cent have a favorable view of her, 42 per cent said they did not. The poll's margin of error was 4.4 percentage points.

This means disaffected voters in Pueblo, who struggle with post-industrialized corporate disinvestment similar to the kind that plagues the Rust Belt, could be enough to propel one of Ms Boebert's many challengers into her seat.

One of the individuals featured in the Politico piece, Charles Perko, is a fourth generation steelworker and the president of his local union.

He said he hopes that Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan survives the partisan gauntlet in Congress, in part because it calls for the expansion of Amtrak rails.

Mr Perko's mill is one of only three sites in the country that produce the rail. If the plan passes, it could mean the steelworkers have jobs for years.

Despite that benefit, Mr Perko sees his representative, Ms Boebert, as a hurdle. She has opposed the stimulus bill, not necessarily because it helps Coloradans, but because it hurts Mr Biden and the Democrats.

She also voted against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which provided stimulus checks and supplementary employment funding for struggling Americans, including Mr Perko and his steelworkers.

Nine Democrats seek to unseat Ms Boebert in 2022, including three individuals from Pueblo.

Though Ms Boebert has provided plenty of ammunition for Democrats to use against her in attack ads, it's unclear if unaffiliated Coloradan voters will be swayed to vote against her. Despite being an outside when she first ran for office, she now has the backing of her local and state Republican parties, who will not doubt work tirelessly to keep her in Washington DC.

Todd Rogers, the chair of the Pueblo County Republican Party, told Politico he and other establishment Republicans would have her back in 2022.

"She stands up for the Constitution, and she's fiscally conservative," he said. "Do i think she's going to have a tough reelection? Yes, but she will have more backing and more support because of people like me in all 29 of her counties."