For U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, who’s unopposed in the Republican primary for the 5th Congressional District but the main target of both candidates in the lively Democratic primary, the big question in the midterms is not who will stand up to President Donald Trump best.

“The question, and I think this will be one in this race, is, does this community just want somebody who’s anti-Trump to fight and push back on Trump? Or do they want somebody who, no matter who the president is, whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump, is going to go try and work to represent this community and get the best things for this community that they can?”

Crank has been criticized by the Democratic candidates Jessica Killin and Joe Reagan for not standing up to Trump enough when Trump decided to take away Space Command from Colorado Springs.

But Crank sees it differently.

“Look, there’s lots that I’ve disagreed with the president on. We’ve pushed back on him on a lot of things, whether it was the veto of the Arkansas Valley conduit or not declaring disaster relief for the counties over on the West Slope.”

The conduit is a 130-mile pipeline under construction designed to supply clean drinking water to over 50,000 residents across 39 rural communities in southeastern Colorado. Trump also denied Colorado’s appeals for major disaster declarations after flooding in western Colorado, and for the Lee and Elk fires, blocking federal FEMA funding.

“We opposed the Space Command move, all of us in the delegation,” Crank added. “The difference is, I think, our two U.S. senators saw it as an opportunity to go after Trump and turn it into a campaign issue.”

Crank believes that approach actually hurt Colorado’s cause. “And, you know, our attorney general, he never asked anybody here if we thought it was a good idea to file a lawsuit” against Trump over the relocation. The El Paso County commissioners, the Chamber and City Council in the Springs all signed onto an amicus brief opposing the lawsuit, which they saw as counterproductive, as did Crank.

“And I think I looked at it as if we show the administration that we’re different, we’re not Denver and we’ll be rewarded. And we were.”

Crank has instead focused on securing alternative military missions and roles for the Colorado Springs area.

“After the decision was made by the president, we got assurances that it was not going to be the operational pieces of Space Command. It’s just the headquarters. So the headquarters is 600 civilian jobs and 400 military billets. That’s what will move in the next three years to Huntsville.” Only 200 of those positions are expected to be moved by the end of this year. Operations and war fighting will largely remain in the Springs, Crank said.

“Do we want to go kick sand in the face of the president and miss out on that opportunity over 1,000 jobs?” he asked. “So, I set out to work with them. I tried to build a relationship with (U.S. Rep.) Mike Rogers (chairman of the Armed Services Committee) from Alabama. And I’ll be honest with you, I had a lot of people telling me, including some of my colleagues, ‘You need to go hold the system hostage.’ I just wouldn’t play the game.”

Instead, Crank focused on bringing new military plums to the Springs to offset the loss of Space Command headquarters.

He cites three big pieces coming Colorado Springs’ way, which could total up to 7,500 new jobs.

First is a $250 million space operations center, which will be built out at Schriever Space Force Base. The center will focus on building out the Golden Dome missile shield project that Congress has allotted $25 billion for and host the National Reconnaissance Office, which focuses on intelligence gathering capabilities from space. Crank said the center will bring 2,500 civilian jobs to the Springs and 3,200 military jobs, for a total of 5,700 jobs. The Space Operations Facility is awaiting approval in the pending National Defense Authorization Act. 

Secondly, Colorado will also soon be home to a new PAE — a Program Account Executive operation that focuses on acquisitions for the Air Force. The PAE that oversees the acquisition of test ranges for Space Force, testing facilities and ranges and launch facilities is moving here from Los Angeles to be closer to the concentration of Space Force assets. They have a $4 billion-a-year budget that is expected to grow to $10 billion a year as Space Force continues to expand. Crank said that the PAE represents between 300 and 500 new jobs.

And the third piece is the influx of first lieutenants graduating from college who want to be in the Space Force. Their first duty assignment is here at Peterson Space Force Base. Right now, that’s 600 new Guardians a year, and that number will triple next year to 1,800 as Space Force continues to grow.

“The president’s investment in space and in Space Force is tremendous. So, all told, I think we’re talking probably 7,500 or so new people here over the next three to four years,” compared with a loss of 1,000 from Space Command.

The secretary of the Air Force is making these decisions now, and Crank believes if he had been obstructionist like Democrats, none of this would be coming Colorado’s way.

In addition to the new jobs, half of all Space Force personnel still reside in Colorado, a workforce only expected to grow. The base east of town is booming with more than 7,000 employees, counting contractors, and an economic impact of about $1 billion, said Col. Eric Bogue, commander of Space Delta 41, during a State of the Base event Thursday.

The region’s five military bases control the world’s GPS systems and most other military satellite communications. And crucial missions like NORAD and U.S. Northern Command remain here, along with the Air Force Academy. Those military installations are one of the reasons the 5th District race is one of the most important in Colorado.

Though Crank is unopposed in the primary, he will face a serious Democratic contender in the fall, either Killin or Reagan, at a time when Colorado Springs’ conservative complexion may be changing. More unaffiliated voters are registered to vote in El Paso County now than Republicans and Democrats combined, and Colorado Springs has its first ever mayor who is not Republican, Yemi Mobolade, who calls himself an independent.

Also for the first time in history, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Colorado’s 5th Congressional District to its Districts in Play List, placing it among the top pickup opportunities for Democrats in the country.

Killin has outraised Crank in campaign financing — in the last reporting period, Killin had $1.5 million cash on hand and Crank had $1.3 million, and she has raised more money than any other Democrat ever has in the 5th.

Crank acknowledged the Democrats are trying to create the narrative that El Paso County is getting less conservative. Some of that speculation stems from the recent mayor’s race, Crank believes, but the dynamics of that race were unique in that traditional Republicans Wayne Williams and Sally Clark split the conservative vote and when the election went to a runoff, Clark threw her votes behind Mobolade rather than Williams. And Crank points out that Mobolade is an independent, not a Democrat.

“So I think they’ve really misread that and what it means here. This is still pretty conservative territory,” Crank said. And registered Republicans still outnumber registered Democrats 142,786 to 82,319.

“We’re going to take it seriously and we have,” Crank said. “I never took my foot off the gas from raising money. I’ve had to raise more money than anybody in the seat ever had to.”

Crank believes the general election will offer a very clear choice. Crank differs greatly from Democrats in his approach to immigration enforcement, for example, which he sees as more a rule-of-law issue than an immigration issue. I told him I was surprised there hasn’t been a bigger sanctuary city crackdown in Denver by the Trump administration, and he thinks it’s coming.

“If you don’t like a law, you have to change it, but you can’t just ignore it,” he said.

Crank believes Colorado Springs has handled immigration issues better than Denver. “I always supported the sheriff when he would stand up and say, hey, we’re not a sanctuary city, we worked with ICE. I would make sure the White House got that.”

Crank worries that tussles over power availability because of state environmental mandates could also drive military installations out of the state. He said folks on military bases are genuinely worried about it.

Democrats also have a different approach to VA health care than Crank.

“We have a fundamental disagreement between many on the left, and I know Joe (Reagan), particularly, and I have this disagreement. He wants to fund the VA, and just put more funding in it today and I want to change fundamentally the way the VA operates.” Crank supports a bill Congress passed several years ago called the Mission Act, which was intended to allow veterans to choose their care, whether it happened in a VA facility or a private doctor.

“It’s very similar to school choice; when you have an outside entity putting competition pressure on you, you will improve.”

Interestingly, both Democrats are military vets; Crank is not. “Look, when it comes to the military, we have provided our military an 18.5% pay increase since I’ve been in Congress, doing another 7% in the defense authorization bill,” Crank said. “A lot of that money was provided in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Both of my opponents have said they were opposed to that bill.”

“And the $25 billion for Golden Dome that will so benefit this community, both of them would have voted against the funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“So it’s easy to go say I’m opposed to whatever the president does. But is that the best thing for our community? The answer is no.

“I think the problem that you see from both of my opponents and from the Democrat Party right now is, it’s just all about hating Donald Trump. That seems to be the driving force of their campaign. I think people want something they can look toward rather than just something they’re against.”