Online critics of Republican Lauren Boebert seemed to revel in the nail-biter close race the congresswoman remained locked in hours after polls closed in Colorado, with many pointing to her own social media silence as a sign that a potential loss could be imminent.
The GOP firebrand’s tight race against Democratic challenger Adam Frisch remained too close to call as of Wednesday afternoon, with the defending congresswoman still trailing her rival by less than two per cent with more than 90 per cent of votes counted, The New York Times reported.
On Twitter, where the Trump-endorsed candidate is bombastic and prolific in her near hourly posts, Ms Boebert appeared to have taken an Election Day vow of silence, as her account has gone for more than half a day without an update being shared.
“The red wave has begun!” tweeted Ms Boebert on Tuesday as she congratulated fellow Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who was one of the first House races to be called by the Associated Press. “America First is winning!” she added, in a message that quickly began to grow stale as her and other MAGA-embracing Republican’s predictions of a “red wave” shaped into more of a pink dribble.
Though Ms Boebert’s tight race proved to be a surprise for pollsters, Democrats and Republicans, as many predicted she would easily coast to reelection, observers online took the congresswoman’s long silence as a sign that the writing was perhaps on the wall for the controversial lawmaker.
“Lauren Boebert has not tweeted in 10 hours. Her last tweet was ‘The red wave has begun’ With 93% of the vote in she is still losing her election,” tweeted Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko, when the Colorado congresswoman’s last tweet was still 10 hours old.
Podcaster Rachel Vindman responded to Mr Parkhomenko’s tweet with a quip that quickly gained hundreds of likes: “Sometimes tsunamis never materialize.”
Others joined in later on the platform, when the tweet had gone for even longer without another update being shared by the prolific tweeter, that her message was becoming painfully out of touch.
“Well that hasn’t aged well in the last 16 hours. It has been total silence since then,” wrote one observer, while another joked that perhaps the 35-year-old congresswoman had perhaps meant the tweet as “a wave goodbye”.
Some on the microblogging platform rejoiced that, regardless of the outcome of the election, they were taking it as a small “win” that the Trump-embracing MAGA conservative had remained quiet on the platform for a record length of time by her standards.
“Even if Lauren Boebert wins somehow, we all still got to enjoy 16+ hours of radio silence from her, which is also a win for the good guys,” tweeted one commenter.
Despite the election still being too soon to call, however, many took the radio silence from Ms Boebert as a telling detail that this could be the last few months where she’s able to use the platform as a megaphone for her right-wing politics as an elected official.
“The red wave has begun!" — Lauren Boebert, yesterday "you want fries with that?" — Lauren Boebert, tomorrow,” jested one Twitter commenter.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki seemed to join in the pile-on, tweeting early in the morning when a fewer number of votes had been counted, “Just a shout out to my Dad who lives in her district and told me last month @laurenboebert could lose and I didn’t believe him.”
The current MSNBC contributor cautioned her tweet, commenting below that, “To be clear we don’t know yet! But the fact that we are talking about it and watching is huge.”
Ms Boebert’s isn’t the only race thought to be an easy layup for the Republicans that has drawn grave concern from the party, as many began speculating on Wednesday morning if the de facto leader of the GOP – former President Donald Trump – was to blame for the less red showing.
Several of the ex-president’s top picks failed to materialise into the so-called “red tsunami” with many of the races predicted to be easy pickups turning into embarrassing defeats. Don Bolduc lost handily to Senator Maggie Hassan, Bo Hines lost the congressional seat to Democrat Wiley Nickel and Dr Mehmet Oz failed to hold onto Pennsylvania’s Republican-held Senate seat in a race against Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.
