Tuesday 3 November 2026
Jessica Killin leads Jeff Crank in the 5th District, in a seat only Republicans have ever held, and the race is not yet called
Democrat Jessica Killin leads Republican Representative Jeff Crank in Colorado's 5th District, and the Associated Press lists the race as too early to call. The Associated Press count had Killin at 118,290 votes and Crank at 103,246 as of 9:30 p.m. Colorado time, with an estimated 69.8 percent of the vote counted, a lead of 15,044 votes. The district is El Paso County alone, and the county has not finished reporting. The seat, centered on Colorado Springs, has been held only by Republicans since it was created in the early 1970s, and Crank won it in 2024 by about 14 points.
Killin is a former Army captain, paratrooper and military police officer who served as chief of staff to former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. She outraised Crank through the autumn, and the final public poll in the district, a Public Policy Polling survey for House Majority PAC taken on October 19 and 20, put the two candidates tied at 47 percent each. Crank, a first term congressman who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, ran in a district with five military installations and more than 100,000 veterans, ground his party has treated as its own for fifty years.
Two minor candidates hold the rest of the vote counted so far: Libertarian Mark Elworth with 3,609 votes and American Constitution candidate Christopher Mitchell with 3,320 in the Secretary of State's count as of 9:30 p.m. Colorado time. A lead in the count is not a call, and this race stays marked not yet called until the Associated Press calls it or El Paso County finishes its count. If Killin's lead holds, Colorado Springs sends a Democrat to Congress for the first time in the district's history.
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