On Thursday, May 14, 2026, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office conducted an undercover operation targeting adults seeking to exploit children online. Investigators posted ads posing as minors offering sexual acts on local websites and forums. Several dozen people responded. Two of them actually showed up.

Hunter Rivera was one of them.

Rivera, 24, was the chairman of the Weld County Republican Party in Colorado — a position he had held with the public support of Representative Lauren Boebert, who backed his bid for the chairmanship last year. He had been involved in Republican politics since he was 17 years old, when he joined the Northern Colorado Young Republicans. He had worked as a field organizer for Colorado’s 9th Congressional District and as a campaign staffer for Senator Cory Gardner, State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, State Representative Mike Lynch, and State Representative Ryan Armagost. He had served as a national committeeman for the Colorado Federation of Young Republicans and as an aide to Republican legislators at the Colorado State Capitol.

On Thursday evening, he drove to a location where he believed he would be paying to have sex with a minor.

Deputies were waiting. He was arrested and booked into the Larimer County Jail on a $6,500 cash-only bond.

The Charges

Rivera faces four felony counts: soliciting a child prostitute, internet luring of a child, cybercrime — soliciting to arrange a minor prostitute, and attempted sexual assault on a child.

The second man arrested in the same operation is Ismaaeel Abdur-Rahmaan, 23, of Fort Collins, who faces identical charges. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that while several dozen people responded to the investigators’ online listings, Rivera and Abdur-Rahmaan were the two who actually appeared at the agreed location.

Rivera did not stumble into this. He saw an advertisement. He responded to it. He arranged a meeting. He drove there.

The Response

Representative Lauren Boebert — who had personally endorsed Rivera’s party leadership — issued a statement calling the allegations "vile and indefensible" and demanding his immediate removal. "I pray to God there are not real victims out there. I am angry and disgusted," she said. "We have zero tolerance in the Republican Party for anyone involved in these horrific crimes against children. The Weld County GOP needs to act right now to remove him and send a clear message: our party protects kids and upholds integrity. No excuses. No delays."

Colorado House and Senate Republicans released a joint statement calling the charges "sickening, horrifying, and beyond reprehensible." They called for his immediate resignation and added: "There is no defense for anyone who preys on children, no excuses, and no place for that anywhere near public life or our party."

The Weld County Republican Party accepted Rivera’s resignation on Saturday afternoon. First Vice Chair Adrienne Sandoval will serve as acting chairman until a successor is elected.

Rivera did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

What Needs to Be Said

The Republican Party has spent years — not months, years — making child safety the centerpiece of its culture war platform. It called teachers groomers. It called librarians predators. It called drag performers an existential threat to children. It used the word "groomer" as a political weapon against educators, librarians, healthcare providers, and anyone else who expressed support for LGBTQ people. It held congressional hearings about protecting children from predators. It built an entire political identity around the premise that the other side — Democrats, progressives, teachers, librarians, anyone they disagreed with — represented a unique and organized danger to the children of America.

The chairman of a county Republican Party in Colorado drove to a sting operation to pay for sex with someone he believed was a minor.

This is not a guilt-by-association argument. The charges against Rivera are his alone. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and the legal process should proceed accordingly.

What is not subject to the presumption of innocence is the political hypocrisy on full display here. A party that spent years pointing at other people’s alleged danger to children — while calling for investigations, hearings, book bans, and the removal of teachers from classrooms — produced a county party chairman who responded to a child predator sting advertisement, drove to the location, and was arrested by the deputies waiting for him.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and its investigators did exactly what law enforcement is supposed to do. They identified a threat to children, set up an operation to catch it, and made arrests. They deserve every word of praise they have received.

The political party whose chairman they arrested has some harder questions to sit with — not about Rivera specifically, but about the years it spent weaponizing the protection of children as a political cudgel while apparently not examining its own house with the same scrutiny it applied to everyone else.

Lauren Boebert said her party has "zero tolerance" for crimes against children.

The party’s county chair in her own congressional district just drove to a child predator sting.

That is where we are.

The charges are serious. The hypocrisy is documented. The children this operation was designed to protect deserve better than a political party that uses their safety as a campaign slogan while its own leaders show up in handcuffs.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office was right to run this operation. They should keep running them. And every arrest they make — regardless of party affiliation — should be reported, prosecuted, and treated with exactly the seriousness the protection of children demands.

Starting with this one.