COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Since its creation, Colorado's 5th Congressional District has never elected a Democrat. This year, that 50-year streak could be broken after polling numbers show a dead heat at the end of October.
Since 2000, a Republican has never won CO-5 by fewer than 40,000 votes (the closest margin being 39,833). It's no exaggeration to say this race has never been this close this century.
On the ballot this year is Republican Incumbent Jeff Crank, running for his second consecutive term, and Democratic Challenger Jessica Killin, who has never held office in Congress.
Ahead of the November 3 election, KRDO13 sat down with each candidate to ask them about several hot-button issues in Southern Colorado:
Below are the candidates' full answers to questions about the aforementioned issues. There have been minor edits for clarity and brevity.
What is the biggest challenge facing Southern Coloradans, and what do you plan to do about it?
Jeff Crank: Well, there's no doubt I think it's affordability. It's been a difficult road for the last many years.
Inflation has increased under the Biden administration. It increased at a record pace, the highest inflation in 40 years. 9% inflation in one year. In the Biden years, we've been able to get that down. It's about three, 3.2% right now.
We still need to do a lot more to get it down. But, particularly here in Colorado, inflation is rampant because we've got very bad decisions by our state legislature to drive up the cost of housing, driving up the cost of utilities and other things as well. And so these are very bad choices that have been made here.
We've got to do more to put more money into the hands of the citizens of El Paso County. And, you know, that's one of the things I focused on when I was in Congress was to make sure that we didn't have tax increases on them, which would have happened if we didn't pass the Working Families Tax Cuts Act would have been a $4.5 trillion tax increase. It would've been devastating.
Jessica Killin: I think the biggest challenge facing everyone here in El Paso County and across southern Colorado is cost of living.
What I hear about everywhere I go, every corner of this district, is that people feel like no matter what they do, whether they get a promotion or a pay raise, they're not feeling it. Their groceries are too expensive. Their gas is too expensive. They can't afford a nicer home. They can't afford a vacation. They can't afford to go out to eat.
They can't afford childcare. And they're doing all the right things, but they're not seeing the benefits of that. There's a role for the federal government in helping with that. My opponent has not really focused on that at all in terms of addressing the realities of what people are struggling with.
That's something that I'm very focused on, is rolling up my sleeves, delivering results. People are sick of partisanship. They want actual results from their government. They want an economy that works. I grew up here in the middle class. I got to live my version of the American Dream. I want people all across southern Colorado to feel like they have the ability to live their version of the American Dream as well.
The cost of living in Colorado, and in the Springs specifically, has dramatically increased over the last several years. What can be done in Washington to help lower everyday costs for Southern Coloradoans? And how would you go about instituting that change?
Killin: I sort of see my term in Congress, my first is first period when Donald Trump is still in the white House and then after. But there are things we can do, even with Donald Trump in the white House, to help bring costs down for people.
First, we can roll back and put a check on the Trump tariffs. Tariffs have a place if they're used strategically, but the tariffs right now are the opposite of strategic. They are a regressive tax that has a significant impact on lower-income people.
In addition to that, they are wreaking havoc on our small businesses. And they're making it more expensive to build homes, which we need to do here in El Paso County. So it's time for Congress to take back its power and actually put a check on the Trump tariffs. Jeff Crank has voted to continue to allow those tariffs to go on for six votes already without any check.
It's time for somebody to stand up to that second health care. This Congress rolled back the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were really making a dent in terms of people's premiums and deductibles. We need to reinstate those. We also need to make sure we are negotiating as much as possible on Medicare and prescription drug pricing. This administration, this Congress, has rolled back that.
The so-called one big beautiful bill is expected to take 225,000 Coloradans off of their health care and make health care even more expensive than it already is for Coloradans all across the state. We need to repeal the most egregious provisions, those egregious Medicaid cuts that we know are just making everyone's health care more expensive.
Finally, housing. We've had a population boom here in El Paso County. We have not been strategic about our growth, unfortunately. And so we have a bunch of empty $500,000 houses because incomes have not kept pace.
We do not have enough starter homes and condos here. We need to make sure we're continuing to grow our local economy here so we can fill those empty big houses, but also build the right size housing here. We can incentivize builders to do those things, to make sure they're building the right-sized housing.
We can also set up buyers to get into those homes at an earlier age. So a first-time homebuyer tax credit, some wiggle room, and some workaround for down payment requirements because right now people are not getting into their first home until they're 40. And that's a much shorter runway to build your nest egg and to build that American dream.
Crank: We have to deregulate some things. We're working right now on something called permitting reform, which would change the way that you go about getting permits to do jobs that would create more jobs in the construction industry, particularly.
We want to work on getting interest rates down. I think the way we do that is to go after debt and stop spending as much; both parties have failed the citizens, quite frankly, both Democrats and Republicans have failed to cut spending appropriately.
We need to trim down the size and scope of the federal government, deregulate, and get that off the backs of the citizens here.
But again, there are also things that we can do on housing specifically. I've got a couple of bills in Congress that I'm working on, on housing that would, that would reduce the cost of housing over $140,000 of the cost of a new home in Colorado today is because of government regulation.
If we reduce that regulation, we're going to make housing more affordable for people.
Can you elaborate on those bills?
One is called the Framer Act. And it would take a state like Colorado that has instituted much more stringent environmental regulations than the national standard. All of those regulations have a cost to them, whether it's electrical codes or energy efficiency codes and things like that. My bill would say that if a state is going to impose that, they need to pay for it, not the homeowner coming in.
Then, on the other housing bill that I have on affordability is to, allow a builder to pay off the student loan of a buyer, a first-time homebuyer, up to $25,000. That would be tax-free to the homebuyer as well, to help incentivize and get their debt-to-income ratio down, to help make it more affordable to own a home
The conflict with Iran is one of the most polarizing issues of 2026, and it has a particular significance to Colorado Springs with our massive military and veteran population. Do you support the war with Iran?
Crank:
Killin:
Moving Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville was a controversial decision, but in the immediate aftermath, we were told more investment would be coming to Colorado Springs. How would you ensure that promise is kept, regardless of who’s in office?
Killin:
Crank:
This campaign cycle between you and your opponent was particularly heated. Once the election is over, win-or-lose, what would you do to change the tone of political hostilities in this county?
Crank:
Killin:
One of the most contentious issues on the minds of many Americans is Artificial Intelligence and Data Centers. Here in Colorado Springs, we’re in the middle of a huge public debate about a proposed data center. Where do you stand on the use and future of Artificial Intelligence, and how involved should the government be in regulating it? How involved should the government be in the building of data centers?
Killin:
Crank:
The post The big race on the ballot: KRDO13 sits down with Jeff Crank and Jessica Killin to talk about issues in Southern Colorado appeared first on KRDO.
