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State Board of Education member Stephen Varela on Thursday announced he would campaign for the western Colorado seat that fellow Republican Lauren Boebert is giving up to run for a seat in the eastern half of the state. Varela, an Army veteran, argued that he’s a “battle-tested conservative and former Democrat” who wants to stop “unbridled liberalism,” but he’s far from an ordinary convert.
9News’ Kyle Clark writes that Varela has changed his party affiliations 18 times since 2011, including twice in one day in 2016. The candidate told Colorado Politics’ Ernest Luning that he swapped parties as needed so he could vote in the primary of his choice, though even he was surprised by how often he’d done so. “Holy cow,” he told Clark last year, “So bizarre, right?” He now insists, though, “I am and will continue to be a Republican.”
However, the GOP’s right flank may have more to be angry about than his ever-changing party affiliation. Luning notes that Varela co-founded an anti-Boebert group called Rural Colorado United that spent money against her in both the 2020 and 2022 general elections.
Varela ran for the state Senate in 2022 (as a Republican, we have to specifically note), but lost the general election 51-49 to Democratic incumbent Nick Hinrichsen. Party leaders picked him just after that loss to fill a vacant seat on the state Board of Education representing the 3rd Congressional District.
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