Colorado Springs Democrat Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and former top congressional and White House aide, announced Tuesday that she’s challenging first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, predicting that the reliably Republican district is poised to flip in next year’s election.

“I’m running for Congress because Washington needs leaders who are focused on actually getting things done — not partisan name-calling and bitter culture wars,” Killin said in a statement. “The Pikes Peak region deserves results-oriented, competent leadership. Instead, Jeff Crank has let his constituents down, voting to kick thousands off healthcare while raising the national debt by trillions.”

A fourth-generation Coloradan who grew up in Colorado Springs — her parents taught public school — the 51-year-old Killin told Colorado Politics that Crank’s vote for the Republican budget bill signed earlier this month by President Donald Trump encapsulates the reasons she believes the incumbent is vulnerable.

“I feel like I’ve been super lucky to live my version of the American dream, and I want everyone in this community to have that same opportunity,” she said in an interview. “And I think, unfortunately, Jeff Crank and his policies are making that harder to do.”

Killin said the massive additional federal debt projected under the bill — independent analysts estimate the legislation will add upwards of $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade — threatens the country’s future.

“I’m a mom, and as a mom, I believe we cannot saddle our kids with a level of debt that’s unsustainable,” Killin said. “And it leads me to believe that Jeff Crank either doesn’t know what this community needs, or he doesn’t care — neither of which is OK. So I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, working my butt off and winning every vote.”

Crank, a longtime political operative and former podcaster, won election last year by a wide margin over Democrat River Gassen following the retirement of nine-term Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn.

Killin joins a field of four other Democrats who have launched campaigns in the district, including Joe Reagan, an Army combat veteran and nonprofit executive who ran in 2024 but lost the primary to Gassen.

Most recently, Killin served as chief of staff for second gentleman Doug Emhoff, following stints on Capitol Hill with the same position for Democratic lawmakers, including Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Florida Rep. Donna Shalala. Before that, she was a lead lobbyist for USAA, a group of financial services companies that provide insurance, banking and investment services to members of the military, veterans and their families.

After attending college on an ROTC scholarship, Killin served as an Army paratrooper and military police officer in Europe, attaining the rank of captain. She worked on peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and on NATO expansion. Following her military service, Killin received a law degree at Georgetown University Law Center, where she later taught.

The 5th CD, which nearly coincides with the boundaries of El Paso County, hasn’t sent a Democrat to Congress since its creation in 1972, but its voting patterns have been steadily shifting to the left over the last decade. It was one of only a handful of House districts in the country, for instance, where Kamala Harris did better in 2024 than Joe Biden had in 2020. In 2022, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis lost the district by only 3 percentage points while on his way to a landslide reelection statewide over Republican nominee Heidi Ganahl.

And although Crank won the 2024 general election without seeming to break a sweat, his nearly 14-point margin was the lowest yet posted by a GOP nominee in the district, amounting to less than half of Lamborn’s 31-point margin just eight years earlier.

Andrew Baumann, a partner at Global Strategy Group, a national Democratic polling and public affairs firm, is working for Killin’s campaign. He told Colorado Politics that he’s “bullish” on the district’s potential to elect a Democrat, citing dramatic recent demographic changes and swings in voting behavior.

“No district in the country is moving away from Republicans faster than CO-05,” Baumann said in an email. “This district feels a lot like Orange County, CA circa 2017 — right before it finally flipped blue. It’s a traditionally Romney-Republican leaning district that has changed rapidly as more college-educated unaffiliateds have moved to the region, and that is fed up with Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans like Jeff Crank. It’s very much in play in 2026.”

While the 5th CD has been rated by election forecasters as “solid” Republican for decades, the nonpartisan analysis at Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales recently moved it a notch to “likely” Republican, saying the seat is “still difficult territory for Democrats but in a wave year could be competitive.”