What You Never Knew About Lauren Boebert

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is impossible to ignore. She's loud and raucous and frequently speaks totally off the cuff, much like President Donald Trump, which is what initially drew people to Boebert and subsequently launched her political career into the stratosphere. But even though she managed to become the representative for Colorado's third district, Boebert's newfound popularity didn't last all that long. She ultimately served two consecutive terms, but by the time the 2024 presidential election loomed, Boebert had become quite unpopular in her home state. Residents who spoke to Politico informed the outlet that they felt the congresswoman was completely out of touch with their needs. "I got a weird sort of feeling when Boebert was ranting about masks because, by that point, masks were irrelevant here. What mattered was the cost of gas and food and rent," one opined.

After getting a taste of power, it seemed that Boebert was desperate to hold onto it, so she decided to move and switch districts, abandoning her bid for the third and instead running to represent the fourth. "It's the right move for me personally, and it's the right decision for those who support our conservative movement," Boebert explained in a video announcing her bid for the fourth congressional district (via Denver7). She also claimed that switching districts was her way of "staying in the fight," and accused celebrities of trying to buy the third district and launching a personal attack against her. "I will not allow dark money that is directed at destroying me personally to steal this seat," the politician offered as further elaboration as to why she was jumping ship. Depending on who you ask, however, Boebert setting her sights on the fourth district was simply a strategic move to keep her seat.

Lauren Boebert has two birth dates, and depending on which one is actually correct, the Colorado congresswoman might share her birthday with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' fiancé Lauren Sánchez, who was born on December 19, 1969. Boebert hasn't offered any explanation as to why she has two different birth dates filled out on various official documents, nor has she clarified publicly which one is correct. And yet, the divisive politician touted her willingness to share just about everything with the public during a 2024 interview with the Colorado Sun. "I have never been afraid to answer questions when someone has concerns or brings something to my attention. I address it head on. I always have," Boebert professed. "My personal life has been an open book on the table." 

Except when it comes to her actual birth date, that is. On police records concerning the congresswoman, it's listed as December 15, 1986. This is the same date that used to be listed on Boebert's Wikipedia page. However, it has since been changed to December 19, 1986, the same birth date Boebert has been filling out on official government documents (which also matches Sánchez's). The Colorado Sun reported on the discrepancies, adding that the congresswoman and her team clammed up at the mere mention of Boebert's differing birth dates. She has also claimed to be multiracial on certain documents, something else that the staunch Republican also notably refused to comment on.

For all her supposed transparency, in many ways, Lauren Boebert is quite the enigma. If it hadn't been for Donald Trump's would-be attorney general Matt Gaetz's wife, Ginger Luckey Gaetz, no one would have even known that Boebert hides a massive tattoo. Ginger took to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2024 to share a snap of the congresswoman in a bikini after Florida Representative Anna Pulina Luna got dragged online when old footage of her sporting a MAGA swimsuit went viral. 

We love confident, healthy, patriotic women like Lauren 👙 https://t.co/QZAc7fmmkA pic.twitter.com/OHlAtnmsdE

— Ginger Gaetz (@GingerLGaetz) August 15, 2024

Gaetz captioned the post, "We love confident, healthy, patriotic women like Lauren." Boebert also voiced her support for Luna, writing, "We all love Anna Paulina Luna!" Not everyone thought the picture of Boebert was appropriate, though. "Tattoos? Yuck," one critic responded to the post. "A tribal tattoo. So cringe," added another in reference to the sizeable design across her side. Naturally, plenty of users were appreciative of the photo and the message that Ginger tried to send to critics.

Before Lauren Boebert rose to political stardom, she ran a restaurant where waiting staff were allowed to carry guns. Fittingly, the establishment was named Shooters Grill, and its owner found herself in hot water after patrons were served bad food at the Garfield County Rodeo in 2017. The following day, complaints from at least 80 people started pouring in, blaming Boebert's food for their ailments. Upon further inspection, it turned out that she never had a license to serve food at the rodeo and that her restaurant had foregone crucial food safety practices. As for the servers carrying firearms, the outspoken congresswoman reasoned in an interview with the Post Independent, "Most carry semi automatics, because that's what we practiced with."

Shooters Grill closed its doors in 2022, with Boebert and her now ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, releasing a joint statement on X to break the sad news. The former couple called the establishment "an international symbol for the Second Amendment." According to their statement, Shooters was closing because the lease for the building had not been renewed by the landlord. The Boeberts seemed to anticipate the skepticism that would follow, adding, "Many with a political agenda will try to spin this happy transition into something that it's not. Rest assured we will not allow them to steal our joy for all that this restaurant has meant for our family."

Everyone loves an underdog, and Lauren Boebert isn't the first politician to play the tough childhood card, but the authenticity of her story has been called into question on more than one occasion. For one, she posited that her mother, Shawna Bentz, voted for the Democratic Party, but some digging confirmed that Bentz was actually a registered Republican during the time Boebert claimed that she was supposedly voting blue. The controversial politician has often talked about growing up in a poor household in Denver, Colorado, but Boebert was, in fact, born in Florida — something she typically glosses over, for whatever reason. Nevertheless, the outspoken congresswoman has also posited that her family was so strapped for cash that her mother frequently sent her shopping for groceries with food stamps.

She criticized government aid, something Bentz reportedly depended on while raising her, blaming her mom's willingness to live off grants on her affiliation with the Democrats. According to Boebert, the party sells people the idea that they need government money to get by, which in turn earns them votes. She touted her stint at McDonald's at the age of 15 for teaching her the values she now associates with the GOP. "I am a conservative because of real-life experiences," Boebert said in a 2020 Facebook Live (via Mother Jones). "My mom was a true blue Democrat and she believed all of the lies that she was told — that she could not support me and my brothers on her own. She was told that if she went out to try to support us without the help of Democrat politicians, she would fail, and because of that, we grew up poor."

Lauren Boebert doesn't exactly have a squeaky clean record. Her first offence was in 2010, which involved her pit bulls and some disgruntled neighbors who were fed up with Boebert's dogs constantly venturing out of her yard. The politician didn't take kindly to their requests to keep her dogs confined to her property, and confronted them in a manner that her neighbor, Michelle Soet, later described as harassment. Soet subsequently called the police, and Boebert faced legal consequences for dog code violations.

In 2015, the congresswoman got into trouble with the law once again after she tried to prevent police from arresting several youths for underage drinking at a music festival. Boebert was arrested for disorderly conduct and had to make a subsequent court appearance, which she failed to attend. The politician blamed her absence on not knowing what day of the week it was. "I am now aware today is Friday," she countered, per the Denver Post. A second court date was scheduled but Boebert failed to make an appearance yet again. She was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped. 

In 2016, Boebert faced charges for careless driving. Again, she failed to show up to court and spent 100 minutes in the Garfield County Jail in 2017 as a result. The congresswoman then made headlines for disorderly behavior in 2023 when she and her date got kicked out of a "Beetlejuice" performance in Denver for wildly inappropriate behavior. Footage of the incident shows Boebert vaping and feeling up her date during the show. The couple had to be forcibly removed from the theater, with Boebert threatening officials with statements like "Do you know who I am?" and "I will be contacting the mayor," (via The Guardian).

Lauren Boebert went to Rifle High School, but she never actually graduated. This became a public scandal after she managed to win Colorado's third congressional district in 2020. Boebert's life took a turn when she met Jayson Boebert, got pregnant at 18, and summarily left high school early. When her education got called into question, the controversial politician reasoned to the Durango Herald that she left high school to be a better mother. "I had to make hard decisions on successfully raising my child, or getting to high school biology class. And I chose to take care of my child," Boebert clarified. The congresswoman also added that, even though she didn't go the traditional route of completing her education, it wasn't for lack of smarts. 

As she proudly stated, "I was a great student. I had great grades. I loved being there, but I was starting my family and had different priorities." Boebert finally managed to get her GED in 2020, shortly before being elected to Congress. The reports blasting her for being a high school dropout clearly got under the congresswoman's skin, though, because she reportedly tells anyone who will listen that she has a GED, even when no one is questioning her education directly. The divisive politician put this insecurity on full display during the Republican primary debates when she first ran for Congress. While one of her opponents listed all his degrees, Boebert quickly chimed in, "I have a GED!" (via The Colorado Sun).

To this day, as far as the public is aware, Lauren Boebert has no idea who her biological father is. The congresswoman and her mother have similar stories — Shawna Bentz dropped out of high school and welcomed her daughter when she was just 18. There were rumors that Boebert was, in fact, the daughter of renowned wrestler Stan Lane. Bentz even claimed as much, attempting to get Lane to pay child support at one point. He swiftly demanded a DNA test, which ultimately proved that Lane was not the father. 

Then, when it came out that the same lab accepted a bribe to change the DNA results for an NFL player, Lane conceded to having the test redone. But the results remained the same, with the former wrestler telling news outlets he had given them to Boebert personally. "They were conclusive that I had a 0.0% chance of being the biological father," Lane divulged to the Daily Beast. "Once we both reviewed the results Lauren and I agreed that this matter is settled, and I accepted Lauren's apology on behalf of herself and her mother."

The staunch Republican hasn't glossed over the fact that she doesn't know who her father is. When she won Colorado's fourth congressional district in 2024, Boebert delivered an emotional speech, gushing to those gathered about how important family is to her, while acknowledging that not knowing who her father is hasn't made her value it any less.