Greg Lopez prepares for stint as Colorado’s newest member of Congress

Republican Greg Lopez, the a 2022 candidate for Colorado governor, attends the Western Conservative Summit in Aurora on June 4, 2022. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)

Greg Lopez is on his way to Washington, D.C., to serve the rest of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term, over three months since the former Colorado congressman resigned.

Though he will be there for only six months — with the House of Representatives scheduled to be in session for fewer than 50 days over that time — Lopez said he still wants to make a difference.

“I’m going there to start a different conversation,” he said. “I’m here to work, not just hang out.”

Lopez, a Republican, defeated Democrat Trisha Calvarese in a special vacancy election Tuesday in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, according to unofficial results. As of Friday afternoon, he led with 58% of the vote in the highly conservative district that encompasses the state’s Eastern Plains and juts into Douglas County.

He framed himself as a “placeholder” candidate since he won his party’s nomination in the vacancy election in March, vowing not to run in November’s general election for the seat. That will be a contest between Calvarese and Rep. Lauren Boebert, who won their respective primaries for the seat. Boebert, who currently represents the 3rd Congressional District, will almost certainly win the general election.

The placeholder candidate strategy worked in Boebert’s favor, since it meant she did not have to convince voters to choose a Republican on the special election ballot but reject that same Republican in favor of her on the primary ballot.

Lopez said he hasn’t spoken extensively with Boebert since Tuesday other than a congratulatory call.

“A lot of people who understand the military, they understand the acronym TDY, which means a temporary duty assignment. That’s the way I’m looking at it. I’m there to be a principle holder waiting for whoever gets sworn in for the 119th Congress,” he said.

Lopez has held just one elected position before, when he was mayor of Parker in the early 1990s when he was in his late 20s, then as a Democrat. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 1998, the U.S. Senate in 2018, and for governor in 2018 and 202. He served as the Colorado Director of the Small Business Administration during the Obama administration. In 2020 he settled a lawsuit that alleged that after he left the SBA he violated federal law by attempting to improperly influence agency actions.

Lopez and his wife pleaded guilty to harassment related to a 1993 domestic violence incident.

Lopez believes that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, the false claim that helped create the divisive, vindictive atmosphere Buck credited for his resignation. Lopez did not say whether he would accept the results of this year’s presidential election.

“What is November gonna hold for the country? My crystal ball is not any better than anybody else’s,” he said, adding that voters’ concerns about the electoral process deserve consideration and conversation.

Since winning the vacancy nomination, Lopez has been in touch with various congressional staffers to “reduce the learning curve” when he is sworn into office, he said. That could be the week of July 8. Congress is not in session next week.

He said he also intends to communicate with members of the district’s vacancy committee that nominated him throughout his time in Congress.

Bills on guest labor, national debt awareness

Lopez has plans to introduce two pieces of legislation, though he is realistic about the slim chance of anything he submits passing in his short tenure, he said. He is interested in running a bill to set up a “red card system” to allow migrants a short-term work permit if they pass a background check. It’s an idea that has been tried in Congress before through various immigration reform efforts, including from former Vice President Mike Pence when he was in Congress. Lopez said he wants to “dust it off.”

“There’s no reason to start introducing brand new legislation. How about just introducing something that someone thought about in the past? Maybe the timing wasn’t there then, but maybe it is there now,” he said.

Lopez said he also wants to push for more education on the scale of the national debt. His idea is to publish the total national debt for the previous three years on the top of ballots for voters to see.

Lopez will pad Republicans’ majority in Congress as the body debates spending bills and the conservative caucus attempts to load them with right-leaning provisions. He did not offer an opinion on the three spending bills the House passed Friday to fund the Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security, other than to say he is monitoring them.

“I still have a lot of questions,” he said. “I need the rest of the information for me to make a good, informed decision on what’s going on in CD4 and how it’s going to help the nation.”

Lopez will be serving alongside Boebert in an extremely rare dynamic where the current representative is knowingly working with a presumptive successor. He said his goal is to make sure there is a smooth transition next January, should Boebert win the seat, and put in place strong constituent services in the district. He also hopes she might carry on some of his policy ideas that he does not have time to pursue.

“I’m feeling very comfortable that we both share the same mindset. We are going to work very well together,” he said. “I know we’re going to make a good team, and it’s going to be a good transition when it comes time for me to come home and for her to take over.”

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