State Sen. Coram to run against Rep. Boebert in primary election

Republican state Sen. Don Coram, of Montrose, has entered the primary race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, hoping to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert. 

Coram, who represents Senate District 6, filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. A financial summary is not yet available. 

“I’m looking at our state and our nation and I’m very concerned that the 10% on the right and the 10% on the left are making all the noise and getting all the attention, and the 80% in the middle are totally ignored,” Coram said, according to the Montrose Daily Press. 

This is Coram’s final year of his first term as a state senator; however, Coram is unable to run for reelection due to redistricting, as he was drawn into the same district as state Sen. Bob Rankin, whose term doesn’t end until 2025, meaning Rankin will keep the seat. 

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Boebert in December, calling her a “fearless leader, a defender of the America First Agenda, and a fighter against the Loser RINOs and Radical Democrats,” in a statement tweeted by Liz Harrington, Trump’s chief spokeswoman. Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account due to the risk of further incitement of violence in January 2021, after armed Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. 

Boebert officially announced her reelection on New Year’s Eve.

“Anyone who has looked at Don Coram’s voting record knows he is a self-serving, super-woke social liberal who would have a far better chance of winning the Democrat nomination,” Boebert said in a statement, according to CBS Denver.

While Boebert has made unsubstantiated claims about election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Coram told Newsline in December that he hasn’t seen proof that the election was fraudulent.

“I don’t see myself running against Boebert,” Coram said in the December interview. “I see myself running for Colorado.” 

Coram isn’t Boebert’s only opponent for this year’s primary, which will take place on June 28. Marina Zimmerman, of Arboles, filed with the FEC on April 9. 

Coram is a member of the Transportation and Energy and Agriculture and Natural Resources committees. He represented House District 28 as a state representative from 2011 until 2017.

Coram’s occupation is listed as “rancher/mining” on Colorado’s General Assembly website. 

Coram is the former president of the Delta-Montrose Vocational Center, according to the Colorado Senate Republicans website, and served as the director on the school board for Montrose County School District.

Seventy percent of residents living in the 3rd Congressional District are white, 25% are Hispanic and 1% are Black, according to the Census Reporter, which used 2019 data, and 8.5% of the people living in the 3rd District have veteran status. 

The general election is on Nov. 8.