In a decisive victory, Republican Greg Lopez, a former Parker, Colorado, mayor, has won the special election to serve out the remainder of Rep. Ken Buck’s term in the House. The Associated Press called the race for Lopez just 32 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday, with the former mayor securing 57.3% of the vote and 79% of votes counted in Colorado’s 4th District.
The special election will determine who represents the district until January, but a separate primary held on Tuesday will decide who will serve for a full two-year term in the next Congress. Lopez, who opted not to compete in the primary, will step down when Buck’s full-term successor is sworn into Congress at the start of next year.
“I’m not coming up here, you know, saying ‘I want to change the world,'” Lopez told Truth Voices in April. “I’m coming up here — I feel like I’ve been called to duty. I’m a veteran. And so I’ve been called to duty, and I’m going to honor that duty to the best of my ability, and then I get to go home.”
Lopez’s win provides House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) with an additional vote amid a narrow House GOP majority. The party’s margins improved slightly on Tuesday when Rep. Michael Rulli, the replacement for another congressman who retired, was sworn into the House. Lopez defeated Democrat Trisha Calvarese, Libertarian Hannah Goodman, and Frank Atwood of the Approval Voting Party in the special election.
