Eileen Laubacher

Eileen Laubacher wanted to attend the Naval Academy while she was still in preschool, before it admitted women.¹ She eventually followed her father and grandfather into the Navy, while she and her husband, Chris, raised five children in Colorado and taught them at their kitchen table.¹

She graduated from the academy in 1990, served on active duty and became an intelligence officer before joining the Navy Reserve in 1998.² During her 2009 Afghanistan deployment, her parents lived down the street and helped her husband care for their children, then ranging from a baby to a ten year old.¹ In Afghanistan, she led a coordination group that included senior Afghan defense, interior and security officials.²

Laubacher later served as senior defense official and defense attaché in India and as the National Security Council's senior director for South Asia.¹ She retired as a rear admiral in October 2024 after 34 years of naval service, returning to Colorado and more time with her family and three grandchildren.¹

She is challenging Republican Lauren Boebert in the Fourth District, with rural hospital financing a prominent focus of her campaign.³ Her published positions include protecting abortion and IVF access, expanding telehealth, supporting rural hospitals and preventing members of Congress from trading stocks, alongside greater government accountability.⁴