Updated at 4:11 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.

Republican Jeff Crank, a former Colorado Springs political consultant and conservative radio host, will fill the congressional seat left by incumbent Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn. The AP called the race Wednesday afternoon.

As of midnight on election night, Crank was ahead of his Democratic opponent River Gassen, 55 to 42 percent in preliminary results.

“It’s going to be a great night for America,” Crank told a raucous crowd of supporters earlier in the night at the El Paso County GOP watch party at Boot Barn Hall in Colorado Springs.

“We must stand up against a crushing national debt and a growing government,” Crank said during Tuesday’s watch party. “We must defend educational freedom, religious freedom and economic freedom. »

This apparent victory comes after a closely watched Republican primary race when Crank won hands down against embattled Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams by a two-to-one margin

In an October interview With CPR News, Crank expressed a strong interest in reining in the federal government’s deficit spending, while simultaneously advocating for increased defense spending, particularly for the District’s five military installations. He said he would try to move Congress away from a culture of regularly looming government shutdowns and be a strong voice for border security.

The 57-year-old has had his sights set on the 5th Congressional District seat for nearly 20 years. Having started his political career as a D.C. staffer for Rep. Joel Hefley — who held that seat in the ’90s and early 2000s — Crank tried to get the job in 2006 but lost to Lamborn in primary school. Crank failed again in a 2008 primary attempt to unseat Lamborn.

CO-5 is not the most Republican seat in the state, but it remains the only district in the state that has never sent a Democrat to Congress since its creation in 1973.