Rural Colorado United is the central committee mechanism in the current Lauren Boebert / Stephen Varela source cluster.
OpenFEC resolves Rural Colorado United as committee C00755678, a Super PAC / independent expenditure-only committee, unauthorized, with cycles 2020 and 2022. The retained committee-search output lists AUTOBEE, GEORGE as treasurer.
The committee is the strongest supported operational link:
- Retained reporting says Rural Colorado United was formed or co-founded by Stephen Varela and George Autobee to educate voters about Boebert.
- Retained reporting describes Rural Colorado United's 2020 billboard / website campaign criticizing Boebert.
- OpenFEC committee totals show independent expenditures in 2020 and 2022.
- Filtered OpenFEC Schedule E captures return anti-Boebert rows in both cycles.
This supports a campaign-spending and public-message mechanism against Boebert. It does not prove coordination, donor intent, common control, or that Varela personally funded or approved each expenditure.
OpenFEC committee totals in the retained package:
| Cycle |
Receipts |
Disbursements |
Independent expenditures |
| 2020 |
$314,490.33 |
$308,955.80 |
$308,955.80 |
| 2022 |
$34,137.58 |
$41,279.13 |
$41,279.13 |
Filtered anti-Boebert Schedule E captures:
- 2020 cycle:
215 endpoint rows, 3 pages, support / oppose indicator O.
- 2022 cycle:
152 endpoint rows, 2 pages, support / oppose indicator O.
The retained filtered Schedule E files are page-1 endpoint captures, not a complete filing-image reconstruction.
- George Autobee: treasurer in OpenFEC committee-search output and co-founder / spokesperson in retained reporting.
- Stephen Varela: co-founder or forming participant in retained reporting; not listed as treasurer in the captured OpenFEC committee-search fields.
- Lauren Boebert: target of Rural Colorado United's anti-Boebert independent-expenditure and messaging activity.
- The current package does not include FEC filing images or complete Schedule E pagination.
- Varela's committee role is reporting-backed, not directly visible in the retained OpenFEC committee-search fields.
- Donor-origin, contract, staff, and vendor records remain incomplete.
- Do not infer coordination with Boebert or a specific money / data / staff flow beyond the independent-expenditure record.
¶ Evidence and source basis
- Lauren Boebert, Stephen Varela, and Rural Colorado United finance and coordination source cluster
- a locally retained openfec api package from api.open.fec.gov, captured 2026-04-22T14:45:00-06:00, titled Boebert, Stephen Varela, and Rural Colorado United OpenFEC package
- a locally retained article from Colorado Times Recorder, published 2020-09-24, titled Boebert Battles Pueblo Vets Over Mugshot Billboards
- a locally retained article from Colorado Times Recorder, published 2020-10-01, titled Boebert Campaign Said It Knows of No Past-Due Liens, But Records Show Candidate Owes Colorado $19,000
¶ Source access and local retention
Atlas Trace retains a local research capture for provenance of the sources identified on this page. The capture and processing records remain local; they are not available through this wiki. Consult the identified sources for public access options where available. See Sources, access, and local retention.