Durango Herald: In new book, Lauren Boebert chronicles upbringing and path to politics

‘My American Life,’ a 241-page biography, was released last week

In her newly released book, “My American Life,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert recounts her upbringing, how it shaped her conservative beliefs and her eventual run for political office.

The 241-page book, which has a foreword written by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, details Boebert’s life from childhood to her election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Calling herself a “self taught conservative,” Boebert recounts growing up with a single mother and moving from Florida to the Denver area, and eventually to Rifle.

“The cycle of poverty is a real thing, and far too many people in our country don’t know another way of life,” she writes of her childhood. “I lived it, and I can tell you it’s a tough cycle to break, no matter how hard you try, because it turns out hope and change is easier said than done.”

Boebert details her decision to open her now-closed restaurant in Rifle, Shooters Grill. The gun-themed restaurant became infamous after she and other staff members began open-carrying guns in the restaurant.

“The next thing I knew, a whole lot more of America was stopping in, not just the regular locals,” Boebert writes. “They wanted to know who were these girls with guns on their hips serving food in Rifle? Lines formed out the door. It was so crazy packed that we had to expand our hours.”

She also touches on her faith, recounting the time she served as a minister in a Garfield County jail.

“I spent seven years working in the jail ministry – it’s where I learned compassion, patience, perseverance, and how to love the unlovely,” she writes. She also discussed how she made sure that Shooters hired some of the inmates she worked with over the years.

One focal point in the book is Boebert’s views on guns and the Second Amendment.

“For the record, I don’t believe guns cause violence, I believe it is the evil in man that illegally shoots and kills. It is our right to ably defend ourselves from such evil,” she writes.

In 2019, Boebert went to a rally in Aurora for former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, where she gained infamy after telling him, “Hell no,” to his views on gun control.

Rise to politics

Before representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, Boebert had never held or ran for political office. In the book, she recounts how she came to be involved in politics and eventually unseated Scott Tipton, who had represented the district for five terms in Congress.

According to the book, Boebert’s first time being involved in community organizing or activism was when she decided to help gather signatures to put a measure on the ballot in Colorado to overturn the state’s participation in the National Popular Vote Compact, which was a piece of legislation that several states enacted that would have awarded the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who won the popular vote. In 2020, Colorado voted to support the initiative.

After that, Boebert said she started to get more involved in conservative politics, speaking at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Washington state where she would eventually meet Dinesh D’Souza, a right-wing political commentator and author. She also recounts going to a city council meeting in Aspen to voice concerns about a proposal to ban open-carry in city buildings and parks.

In her decision to run for Congress and unseat Tipton, Boebert said spontaneity was an important factor. She said she had become “increasingly concerned” about the direction of the country.

“Every day, I’d meet like-minded Americans who expressed their concerns about the liberal indoctrination of our children through the public school system, the mainstream media that refused to cover the news in a non-biased way, and the politicians who failed to solve problems, politicians more concerned with interfering in our lives,” she writes.

She shared her admiration for Cruz’s views, saying he “wasn’t shy about speaking up about the importance of God and guns.”

Boebert doubles down on her support of former President Donald Trump, writing that she was “MAGA from day one” and had ordered a cardboard cutout of him. Trump’s values and his viewpoint as an outsider to politics made him a president she could get behind, she writes.

“With the president as my inspiration, I grew more resolute than ever to help take on the liberals and defend our rights here in Colorado,” she writes.

After defeating Tipton in the primary, Boebert went on to defeat her Democratic opponent Diane Mitsch Bush in the general election by six points.

“One of the reasons why I believe so many people connected with our campaign was because I was actually out there, in the district, meeting them,” she writes.

She also touches on the pandemic and takeaways from her time in Congress so far.

“There’s a war being fought for the soul of America, and the fight isn’t between the Left and the Right or Democrat and Republican. We’ve gone way past that,” she writes. “It’s a war between good and evil, between freedom and socialism. For all the progress we’ve made as a nation over the course of more than 200 years, in many ways, we’ve gone backward, primarily because of the efforts of the Left.”

Source: The Durango Herald

Join Us