Like so many other members of Congress who rode the Tea Party or MAGA waves into office promising they would never be part of the dreaded Washington, D.C., “swamp” dominated by “unprincipled establishment RINOs,” it only took U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert three years to be motivated first and foremost by political self-preservation over her professed principles.

Boebert unseated a 10-year incumbent, Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, in 2020 by attacking him as a do-nothing career politician who was not loyal enough to then- President Donald Trump. Tipton had a solid conservative voting record that included support for Trump’s tax cut, immigration and deregulation agendas, but that didn’t matter.

She became an overnight MAGA sensation as the gun-toting bar owner who was going to be the conservative answer to Democratic Socialist U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She dutifully parroted false conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump and she became fast friends with the likes of U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz.

It didn’t take long before she seemed to be more concerned about her national media exposure than taking care of the issues of concern to the largely rural 3rd Congressional District. Many of her constituents were embarrassed by such antics as joining Taylor Green and screaming at President Joe Biden during the nationally televised State of the Union address in the U.S. House chamber. She made regular trips to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to hobnob with the defeated former president and wore a long dress with “Let’s Go Brandon!” on her backside.

Boebert fended off a primary challenger in 2022, but state Sen. Don Coram still got 34 percent, which exposed weakness among Republicans. Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch was totally ignored by state and national Democrats in a district that has a nine-point Republican performance advantage but he nearly defeated Boebert, losing by just 546 votes. Boebert initially blamed unsuccessful statewide Republican candidates for dragging her down, but they all ran several points ahead of her in the 3rd CD. Appearing to be chastened, she publicly resolved to tone things down and focus on the district but that didn’t last long as more chaos emerged in her personal life.

The final straw was the incident at the Buell Theater in Denver when video captured Boebert and her date, an Aspen bar owner, appearing to be groping each other, and when they were asked to leave she flipped off the theater staff.

Even in the aftermath of the theater incident, she went to a New York Young Republican gala featuring Donald Trump but inexplicably decided to attend an after-party event with disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who had just been expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives. Boebert now finds herself in a very precarious, if not impossible, political position in a Republican congressional district because of her own actions.

But rather than fighting on or bowing out gracefully, she is resorting to the very motivations she claimed to abhor in 2020. Political self-preservation and remaining in public office are now her priorities. She just doesn’t need those ungrateful voters in the 3rd CD anymore.

Boebert has announced she will run for the open seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in the 4th Congressional District, which already has several announced Republican candidates including a couple who claim the same MAGA stolen-election conspiracy mantle she does. It will be fun to watch the MAGA mini-primary play out with indignant MAGA stolen election conspiracy loyalists already attacking her.

“RINO Watch Colorado,” the MAGA website surreptitiously supported by the Colorado Republican Party that disparages any Republican who has not sworn total fealty to MAGA stolen election conspiracy theories, has declared Boebert the latest member of the “RINO Hall of Fame.” She will still be collecting her $174,000 per year taxpayer-paid congressional salary to represent the 3rd District while spending most of her time campaigning in the 4th District. Boebert has tried to assure her jilted district’s citizens she has a hardworking staff that will continue to serve them as she tries to stay in Congress elsewhere.

One of the only bright spots of her three years in Congress has been her staff. But when voters elected her to Congress in 2022, a staff roster did not appear on the ballot. They voted for her to be their elected representative and she is breaching their faith by galavanting off to the other side of the state to save her political career. If Boebert was as principled as she claimed during her Tea Party/MAGA run for Congress in 2020, she would resign from Congress and physically move to the 4th CD to devote full time to running in the new district — even though the law doesn’t require it. This would allow the 3rd District to have a special election to elect a real member of Congress for the next year.

Or better yet, how about just announcing she is not seeking reelection in the face of certain defeat? Or having the courage to defend her controversial record and continue to campaign for reelection in the 3rd CD?

Those heady Tea Party/MAGA days of being so “principled” in 2020 are long gone. Lauren Boebert is inexpendable and must be in Congress. Just ask her.

Dick Wadhams is a Republican political consultant and a former Colorado Republican state chairman.