There were no surprises in what side of the aisle Jeff Crank and River Gassen each would represent in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.

Crank, a Republican, and Gassen, a Democrat, stood before a crowd at the Penrose House Garden Pavilion Tuesday afternoon for a campaign debate in which they answered  questions from The Gazette, Colorado Politics and KOAA News5 about some of the biggest national issues in the final three weeks before Election Day.

The candidates’ answers largely fell along party lines on immigration, abortion rights and federal spending. Crank sought to set himself apart from former President Donald Trump, however, on economic policies and by saying he would have certified the 2020 presidential election results.

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Gassen largely tracked with Vice President Kamala Harris on issues and leaned heavily on her background as a scientist and educator to espouse data-based decisions.

This is Crank’s third time running for Congress after running against Rep. Doug Lamborn in the primaries in 2006 and 2008. On Tuesday, Crank introduced himself as someone who has been fighting for Colorado Springs and its military community for more than 30 years.

Crank said Dave Williams, whom he defeated in this year’s 5th District Republican primary, should have stepped down as state party chairman and disagreed with Williams’ emails attacking LGBTQ+ residents of Colorado. However, Crank said the best thing to do was move forward and have Republicans who disagreed in the primary to unite this fall.

“If we’re going to learn anything from the Democrats, let’s learn that. Let’s go out and fight for the principles that our party believes in,” Crank said.

Gassen, a first-time candidate who narrowly won the Democratic primary, is a science educator and alumna of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Gassen said she was running to help inspire her generation and attempt to make history.

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Gassen admitted she is a longshot in the historically right-leaning district but said she saw opportunities this year and in the next few elections for Democrats to break through.

“There is a possible path to victory, but it’s gonna require a lot of hope. It’s gonna require a lot of people seeing through the burnout that we’ve felt for the past few decades in this district,” Gassen said.

Education, spending

The most spirited disagreement between the candidates came on education. When Gassen was asked about how the federal government could pay for student loan forgiveness, she used her answer to dig at Crank for his connections with the Charles Koch-backed group Americans For Prosperity.

“I’d like to tax (Koch) or the ultra-billionaires of our country; some of the individuals who have given money to Jeff Crank, for example,” Gassen said.

Crank fired back that he had not received any campaign donations from billionaires and that Gassen was not actually offering a plan to fund debt relief.

“We have to find something that we agree can be cut in the federal government, and so far I haven’t heard a thing,” Crank said.

When it came to budget cuts, Crank reiterated his belief that the U.S. Department of Education should be eliminated and parents should be given more options for schools. During the debate, Crank also advocated for eliminating energy subsidies and reverting the federal budget to pre-COVID spending levels.

Gassen defended the right to have an abortion as a private choice between patients and doctors. She said abortion and other health care coverage should be universally provided and federally funded.

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Crank said that abortion was not a “big issue with the American people.” Crank said he would support an abortion ban but argued that neither Trump nor Harris support a national ban.

Foreign policy

Gassen said that continued funding to Israel should be conditional on attempts to prevent civilian casualties in the war with Hamas. She said that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was turning generations of Palestinians against Israel, and she supported a cease-fire and a two-state resolution to the conflict.

“This situation is older than all of us, but what we cannot see is genocide and, quite frankly, I’m worried that’s we’re heading towards right now,” Gassen said.

Crank said he wanted to see “Hamas and Hezbollah wiped off the face of the earth,” and that a two-state solution was not viable as long as Palestinian leaders disputed Israel’s right to exist as a state.

When it came to the war in Ukraine, Crank said he disagreed with Republicans who were friendly toward Putin or thought he had good intentions in Ukraine. However, Crank said he was not convinced of Ukraine’s case to become a NATO member and wanted more assurances before agreeing to increased U.S. funding for Ukraine in the war effort.

“There needs to be an accounting that it’s not going not line the pockets of oligarchs in Ukraine, and I need to know that before I’m ever going to vote to give more money,” Crank said.

Both candidates vowed to fight to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado Springs. Gassen focused on the scientific aspects of their work and the national security risks that would come with any relocation. Crank said he would work with Colorado’s Democratic U.S. senators to advocate for the agency and would form a local military advisory committee if elected.