Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher is ahead of Republican U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert in the race to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, early election night results show.

Laubacher has 51% of the vote over Boebert’s 46% as of 7:57 p.m. The Associated Press estimates about 74% of votes in the district are counted.

The 4th District, which includes most of Douglas County and the Eastern Plains, is Colorado’s most conservative district. While the district was previously considered safely Republican, some analyses of the Boebert-Laubacher race recently put the district in the “leans Republican” category.

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National Democrats looking to flip the district named it a top priority this election. The last Democrat to represent the district was former U.S. Representative Betsy Markey, who was elected in 2008. She served one term.

Boebert, of Windsor, was first elected to represent the 3rd District on the Western Slope, but she moved across the state after two terms when she nearly lost reelection in 2022. She is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, but a rift arose earlier this year when Boebert campaigned alongside outgoing Kentucky U.S. Representative Thomas Massie, whom the president targeted for leading efforts to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files last year.

Laubacher, a first-time candidate, is a retired Navy rear admiral and former National Security Council official. She was a longtime Republican and switched her party affiliation, first to unaffiliated, and then to Democratic in 2024. She defended that action at a debate against Boebert by claiming her belief in personal liberties is currently found in the Democratic Party and that the GOP she historically supported is “nearly unrecognizable.”