Greg Lopez picked by Colorado Republicans to fill seat vacated by Ken Buck

A Colorado Republican committee selected Greg Lopez to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Rep. Ken Buck, pictured here by Bonnie Cash/UPI

March 29 (UPI) — A Republican committee in Colorado on Thursday selected Greg Lopez as the nominee for a special election to fill the 4th Congressional District seat left vacated by former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck.

Lopez, the former mayor of Parker, Colo., will face whomever Democrats nominate on Monday in the Republican-held district during the June 25 special election.

Lopez — who ran in two failed bids for Colorado governor in 2018 and 2022 — won the nomination by the special election committee tasked with picking a candidate in a surprise victory. The meeting was held at the Lincoln County Event Center in Hugo, Colo.

He will not take part primary election to fill Buck’s seat long-term, also taking place June 25, which features nine candidates including Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. — who announced in December her intent to switch from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District to the 4th District.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., switched from Colorado’s 3rd to the 4th Congressional District, where Greg Lopez will serve out the remainder of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term to better the odds of winning. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI Bonnie Cash/UPI

Boebert opted not to run in the special election. She announced plans to move to the other side of the state in order to better the chance of winning what would have been tough re-election bid against a Democrat.

A former Democrat, Lopez got 51 votes versus his closest opponent — a former Logan County commissioner — who got 46 in six rounds of voting after beating eight candidates to replace Buck.

In November, Buck announced he would not seek re-election due to disagreements with fellow Republicans. But in March, he said that he was leaving before the end of his term which triggered the need for a special election within 90 days.

“Too many Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen,” Buck said in a statement posted to YouTube in November.

Buck’s departure reduced the Republican majority in Congress to 218 seats vs. the Democrats’ 213 seats, telling CNN, at the time how, his colleagues in Congress were “devoted to bickering and nonsense.”

An official on the 4th District Republican committee that nominated Lopez said he “knows a lot of people from when he ran for office” after Thursday’s meeting.

“He garnered a lot of goodwill from around the state. People knew him and trusted him,” local Republican leader Tom Wiens told The Denver Post.

Lopez — who said he too was surprised by his own nomination — vowed only to fill the seat for the remainder of Buck’s term until January 2025.

“I’m going to go there and do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability,” Lopez, he said after the meeting.

But Lopez has had issues with the law which he acknowledged on Thursday after he was nominated by the Republicans to fill Buck’s Congressional seat.

“People have already heard about it,” Lopez said about issues in his past, saying how “the record speaks for itself.”

Lopez and his wife both pleaded guilty in 1994 to a harassment charge after they were both cited in a domestic abuse incident. He allegedly kicked his wife who was then six months pregnant after she fell to the floor after hitting him on the head.

In separate cases, Lopez was accused of driving under the influence, and violated federate law in an attempt to improperly influence dealings of the Small Business Administration while he was an employee.

In the latter, he ultimately paid a $15,000 fine and “acknowledged that the United States could prove the facts alleged in the civil action by a preponderance of the evidence.”