Lauren Boebert celebrates Pelosi’s exit as own race nears recount in Colorado – live

Adam Frisch is in Washington DC with a handful of other candidates who have not won their undecided races but are locked in too-close-to-call contests.

“There’s a handful of us, five or six from either party, that are going through training and going through the motions and getting pictures taken. I try to sit on the very edge just in case they have to cut me out at the end. And we’re learning,” he told Colorado Public Radio earlier this week.

He said that members of Congress “are very supportive of me on the Democratic side and Republican side.”

“I’ve been talking to Democrats and Republicans, new members of Congress,” he said. “Yes, there’s definitely some Republicans that are cheering for me. But everyone understands in a bipartisan manner that every year, every cycle, there’s a handful of people that are in this position where they’re too close to call. So they can’t define it legally, but it’s so close that it’s important for them to come and go through the process.”

Colorado is represented by a Democratic governor, with two Democratic senators and eight House members – five of whom are Democrats.

The close race between Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch was likely a suprise to both candidates but not altogether unexpected in a state with trending Democratic leadership.

Last week, Republicans lost seven seats in Colorado’s state legislature, while another Republican state senator changed his party affiliation to Democratic before midterm elections.

“Honestly I think Colorado Republicans need to take this and learn the lesson that the party is dead. This was an extinction-level event,” Republican state Rep Colin Larson told the outlet. “This was the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaur, and in this case, the dinosaur was the Republican party.”

After two decades in Democratic leadership, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress “must move boldly into the future” and remain “open to fresh possibilities” as she prepares to step down from her historic role.

In emotional remarks on the House floor on Thursday, after Republicans were projected to hold a majority of seats in the lower chamber of Congress, Ms Pelosi said she will continue to serve her district as the congresswoman representing San Francisco, but she will not seek re-election to a leadership role.

The Independent’s Sheila Flynn writes:

House Republicans previewed a swathe of investigations into President Joe Biden and his family after narrowly winning back the lower chamber in the midterms.

The president has rejected any claims that he’s linked to his son’s affairs, but House Republicans are pushing ahead with a congressional probe to derail his administration.

Lauren Boebert cheered them on:

The lack of a signficant majority will come back to bite the GOP, writes Chris Stevenson:

Far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene dodged a question from The Independent when asked about her claims regarding the source of fentanyl crossing the US-Mexico border.

When asked about the fact that most fentanyl comes not from illegal border crossings but from legal ports of entry from American citizens, Ms Greene dodged the question.

“I would ask for where’s your proof on that because that’s not what we’ve been shown,” she said. “When we go to the border and we’re speaking with border patrol agents, when we’re on the ground, that’s not at all what we are being told.”

Then citing a study from the CATO Institute, a libertarian organisation that cited US government data, she rebuffed the study.

“The CATO Institute is not the border patrol,” she said.

As outgoing House speaker Nancy Pelosi reveals her political future, Andrew Feinberg looks back on her legacy:

The race between far-right Republican Lauren Boebert and Democratic challenger Adam Frisch for Colorado’s 3rd congressional district is headed to a likely recount, according to election observers. Given the present vote totals, neither candidate seems likely to possess the required 0.5 per cent margin of victory to win in the first round of counting.

However, as Cook Political Report editor Dave Wasserman notes, it’s “extremely rare for a lead of that size to be overturned in a recount,” pointing to Ms Boebert’s present lead of just over 550 votes.