Former Navy Admiral Who Fled GOP Projected to Flip Republican House Seat in Colorado

A Democratic former U.S. Navy admiral who flipped her allegiance from the Republicans to the Democrats and has previously criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is projected to flip a GOP seat in Colorado, as the political fallout from Tuesday’s midterm elections continues.

Eileen Laubacher, who retired from the Navy in 2024 after 34 years of service, is leading in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who won the seat in the 2024 general election with 53.6% of the vote.

According to the Associated Press, which has not called the race yet at the time of publication, Laubacher has 48.75% of the votes while her rival Boebert is behind by less than one percentage point, with 47.95% of the vote. There are some 3,000 votes between the two candidates and the AP reported that 97% of the votes had been counted.

Libertarian Party candidate Douglas Mangeris has claimed 12,506, or 3.3%, of votes.

The Denver Post reported that Laubacher, who significantly out raised Boebert in campaign funding, likely has a better map remaining in terms of getting votes.

Scott Gessler, an attorney for Boebert’s campaign, said Thursday in a statement to Colorado Public Radio that the campaign was “fighting for every vote.” He said, without citing specifics, that the campaign was “investigating some very unusual voting patterns and expect this election to head to a recount, one way or another.”

Boebert herself said she was fine being a mother and grandmother and would accept any result.

Military.com reached out to Laubacher’s campaign for comment.

Who Is Eileen Laubacher, And What Has She Said About the GOP?

Laubacher, who deployed to Afghanistan and worked as a senior director for South Asian on the National Security Council during former President Joe Biden’s administration, previously identified as a Republican and then as an unaffiliated voter.

She registered as a Democrat in 2025, according to local publication Colorado Politics. In a 9NEWS debate in October, she said the GOP had become “nearly unrecognizable.”

“I changed my party because my view of what the parties represented changed,” she said during the debate.

Amid concerns about conditions for sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln that emerged this summer, Laubacher also criticized Hegseth, the New York Times reported.

Laubacher’s Potential Victory Follows Similar Tone

While officials have not called the race, Laubacher has struck a celebratory tone.

“I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished,” she said at her election night watch party on Tuesday night.

Boebert implored her supporters to maintain faith.

“Listen, y’all don’t start trying to sell your houses and move to Florida just yet. OK, we still got to count some ballots here,” Boebert said in response, emphasizing that officials had not tallied all the votes.

“We are winning all but three counties right now, and we’ll see. We’ll see,” she added.

Laubacher is not the only former Navy admiral to swap her vessel for Congress.

Nancy Lacore, a retired three-star Navy admiral who served in the military for 35 years before Hegseth ousted her in August, is projected to win South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District against her Republican rival Jenny Costa Honeycutt. As of publication 99% of votes were tallied, the AP reported.

The seat formerly belonged to Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who left Congress for a failed gubernatorial bid.

In terms of veterans more generally, according to the veterans’ advocacy group With Honor, 752 veterans registered to run for the House and Senate this year—the highest number they have recorded since they started tracking this data in 2018.

Officials are still tallying votes, but dozens of veterans have won races in states including Alabama Iowa, Missouri and Virginia.

Overall, in a historic political realignment, Democrats secured sweeping victories in the midterm elections and seized control of both the House and the Senate from Republicans. Billed as a “blue wave”or even “tsunami,” the opposition party flipped at least seven Senate seats in key battleground and traditionally red states.