Two veterans are vying to achieve a never-before-accomplished feat: becoming the first Democrat to win Colorado’s 5th Congressional District in this November’s election.
The district, covering Colorado Springs and its suburbs, is typically solid red. But national Democrats have marked the race to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank as demographic shifts, falling approval for President Donald Trump and fired-up liberal voters shifted the district’s rating from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican,” according to the
Crank is unopposed in the Republican primary.
Candidate Jessica Killin, a former U.S. Army captain and chief of staff to former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is going up against Joe Reagan, a U.S. Army combat veteran who turned to the nonprofit sector after his military career, in this month’s Democratic primary.
Reagan narrowly lost the 2024 primary for the Democratic nomination and is running again.
While the 5th District is expected to be a tighter race — the notes it is one of the few House districts that has consistently moved to the left over the past three presidential cycles — it will still take work to flip a district Crank won by 14 percentage points in 2024.
Killin, 52, is banking on doing so with a “Team Normal” platform.
“People are fed up and frustrated,” she said. “They want someone who is going to stand up for their community and stop playing partisan games. Yes, I have a ‘D’ behind my name, but I hate the labels. I am Team Normal… I am exhausted by the chaos, uncertainty, partisan bickering, tribalism.”
Killin had raised for her campaign as of the end of March — outraising incumbent Crank, who had raised more than $1.3 million.
“Jeff Crank has completely failed this community,” Killin said. “He is completely out of touch…The minute he took the oath, he went full MAGA (Make America Great Again). He lost Space Command. He’s never worked to stand up to Trump for our community. He hasn’t done anything to improve cost of living — he’s made it worse… I want our government to be functional again.”
Reagan raised during the same timeframe.
He served as a senior director at two nonprofit organizations, Easterseals, which helps people with disabilities, and veterans-focused Wreaths Across America. He works at a local nonprofit, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, which helps veterans open and operate small businesses.
The 44-year-old said veteran mental health and expanded healthcare access for everyone were priorities of his, along with working toward more affordable housing, making sure every child has access to a high-quality public education and supporting labor unions.
“When you are around town and talk to people about me, most don’t think of me as the Democratic candidate for Congress,” Reagan said. “They think of me as, ‘This is the guy at the Little League field with his kids every week, the guy who helped me start my small business, the incoming president of the Rotary Club.’ Thatap how you inspire trust.”
Reagan said his down-to-earth approach attracts people from all political factions. His campaign headquarters is a melting pot of progressive and moderate Democrats, “recovering Republicans” and independent voters, he said.
“So often, we get voters who say they don’t like either candidate and they’re going to vote for the lesser of two evils,” he said. “And in El Paso County, that means a Republican. Itap on us to put forward a candidate people want to vote for.”
Reagan said there are El Paso County voters who support Democratic issues like the county during the 2024 election, but they still vote for conservative candidates.
“Itap because they distrust the Democratic Party, and you break that by being a community organizer and leader first,” Reagan said. “I’m a combat veteran, so with 100,000 veterans in El Paso County, that puts me in a place I can relate directly to so many of our friends and neighbors.”
Killin, who secured early endorsements from all of Colorado’s congressional Democrats, zeroed in on cost-of-living issues as a core tenet of her campaign.
She said she would focus on improving the affordable housing stock in the Pikes Peak region and creating policies to get first-time homebuyers into homes. She would tackle the childcare desert to address skyrocketing childcare costs, she said.
“I joke that this is not your mother’s Colorado Springs,” Killin said. “People are hungry for change and normalcy. People are feeling so exhausted by this administration and Jeff Crank’s total failure, and thatap how we win this.”
