Former Army Ranger and Bronze Star winner Jason Crow won the Democratic primary in Colorado Tuesday to challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Coffman for the 6th Congressional District in November.
Crow beat Democratic rival Levi Tillemann, the Associate Press reported, with nearly 68 percent of the vote, according to Politico.
The district in metro Denver leans Democrat by several points, yet Coffman, who ran unopposed in his primary, has hung on to his seat despite being a target of the other party.
The Democrats hoped that would change this cycle by nominating Crow, a centrist with an impressive military record, to counteract Coffman’s military background — Coffman is a combat veteran who served in both the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps.
Crow’s centrism is exhibited in his opinion on guns — that America doesn’t have a gun problem, but a gun-violence problem.
“I don’t have a problem with the Second Amendment,” Crow said. “But this isn’t about the Second Amendment. This is about a gun-violence crisis that we have in this country that’s killing over 33,000 people a year.”
Tillemann backs high-capacity gun bans and believes part of the solution to gun violence must be addressing toxic masculinity. In a memorable campaign ad, Tillemann pepper-sprayed himself to prove that it might be an effective way to prevent school shootings.
Tillemann gained prominence after he recorded a conversation he had with Democratic House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, who told him he should drop out so Crow could advance against Coffman. (RELATED: Official Campaign Arm Of House Democrats Unfairly Influenced Colorado Primary With Illegal Contributions, Complaint Alleges)
“Yeah, I’m for Crow,” Hoyer said in the recording.
“I am for Crow because a judgment was made very early on — I didn’t know Crow. I didn’t participate in the decision. But a decision was made early on by the Colorado delegation,” Hoyer said, referring to the three Democrats from Colorado in the House.
Coffman said he is not overconfident about his chances in November.
“I feel pretty good about the race, simply because I’ve had the ability to work the district for so long and have developed fairly deep roots in the district,” Coffman told the Denverite of his chances in a May interview.
“I kinda wiped out the first string,” Coffman said of the candidates the Democratic Party has put up against him in past years. “And now, I think the second string is coming in. But I don’t dismiss it at all, because of the fact that I think it will be a Democratic-leaning year, to what extent, I don’t know.”
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