Matt Cavanaugh, the Army combat veteran and author who has been running an independent campaign to unseat first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, registered this week as a Democrat and will seek the party’s nomination for the seat.

Cavanaugh told Colorado Politics that his principles haven’t changed, but the former “lifelong independent” determined that the best way to defeat Crank is to consolidate the opposition and make it a two-way race in November.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Cavanaugh said in a statement. “Because of Rep. Crank’s unwillingness to be a check on Donald Trump, health care costs are spiraling and everyday essentials are becoming even more unaffordable, while elites in Washington get tax breaks and special treatment.”

He’s joining an already crowded primary in the historically Republican district, which mostly shares its boundaries with El Paso County.

The leading Democrat in the race is Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and former chief of staff to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who raised more than $1 million in her first quarter in the race and has won endorsements from every Democratic member of the state’s congressional delegation.

A spokesperson for Killin’s campaign told Colorado Politics Friday that the campaign finished the year’s final quarter with more than $1 million on hand. The deadline to file campaign finance reports covering the last three months of 2025 is Jan. 31.

Cavanaugh said he’s raised “six figures” as an independent since announcing his candidacy in October and expects to go toe-to-toe with Killin in the June primary.

“The No. 1 consideration for this is just how urgent the moment is,” he said in an interview. “If people feel like the country is going in the wrong way — whether it’s health care costs, boat strikes, corruption or revenge politics — now is the time to make a change. And it matters now, because the central political question of our time is whether the damage being done right now is limited or lasting.”

Added Cavanaugh: “And the fastest way for us to ensure that damage is limited is to fire Jeff Crank and make the House of Representatives a majority of rational vertebrates with the spine to stick up for all of us.”

Democrats have expressed confidence that the district is primed to elect a Democrat for the first time since its creation in the early 1970s, citing its changing demographics and rapid shifts toward Democratic candidates in recent elections. The district was one of only a few in the country where Vice President Kamala Harris outperformed Joe Biden’s 2020 results.

Crank, a former political consultant and podcaster, won the election in 2024 by 14 percentage points following the retirement of former nine-term Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, though that margin was less than half the advantage Lamborn enjoyed just eight years earlier.

Heading into this year’s midterms, House Republicans are defending the narrowest majority held by either party in nearly a century, with just three seats required to flip control of the chamber. Nonpartisan election analysts at Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales moved the 5th CD one step toward competitive territory last year, calling the district “still difficult territory for Democrats, but in a wave year could be competitive.”

Cavanaugh said he’ll be able to assemble a winning coalition of voters frustrated with the country’s direction, noting that a majority of the district’s electorate is registered as unaffiliated.

“There’s still a long way to go, and I’m excited to offer a fresh, outsider approach to build that coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans,” he said. “And, you know, watch this space, because we’ve got some exciting news coming in the next few weeks and months that will continue that momentum towards building that coalition.”

Cavanaugh said he plans to continue using a line that has resonated with voters on the campaign trail.

“If you want no kings, then it starts with no Cranks,” he said. “I think that’s a line that connects with a lot of voters here in Colorado Springs.”

A spokesman for Crank’s campaign declined to comment, but a Killin spokeswoman suggested that voters will reject Cavanaugh’s mid-campaign conversion.

“As a veteran who grew up the daughter of public school educators in Colorado Springs, Jessica knows we must replace Jeff Crank with a courageous and competent leader who will fight to lower healthcare, grocery, and energy costs — not raise them,” Emily Dalgleish said in a text message.

“She knows who she is, what she believes in, and her core values have always been consistent. She’s a patriot who loves Colorado, and Jessica will bring real representation to El Paso County. She’s also the only candidate who has demonstrated she can defeat Jeff Crank this November, and she’s just getting started.”

An internal poll released by the Killin campaign in early November showed the Democrat running neck-and-neck with Crank among the district’s likely voter, and Killin’s fundraising totals have already surpassed those posted by previous Democratic candidates in the district.

The chairs of Colorado’s two major political parties expressed opposing views of Cavanaugh’s decision to run as a Democrat in statements to Colorado Politics.

“El Paso (County) Democrats are fired up, and that’s why we’re seeing record-breaking fundraising and engagement from candidates who represent the broad spectrum of our party,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, who noted that the party has spent the last year organizing and building momentum to flip the county.

“Jeff Crank’s days in Congress are numbered,” Murib said. “Democrats have spent the past year building a movement that’s ready to win up and down the ballot in El Paso County.”

Across the aisle, Colorado GOP Chair Brita Horn scoffed at Cavanaugh’s decision to embrace the partisanship he’d only recently denounced.

“Not even three months ago, Matt Cavanaugh was touting his ‘lifelong independent’ voter status and characterizing it as a ‘broken two-party system,’ yet now we see him embracing it,” Horn said in a text message. “If he thinks voters will be fooled by his antics, he’s in for a tough lesson.”

Cavanaugh told Colorado Politics that he agrees with the Democrats who argue that the party has room to grow.

“I’ve watched for a number of years and been disappointed at the Democratic Party tent getting smaller, and I think a lot of voters share that sentiment,” he said, point to a recent statewide poll that found both major parties were viewed unfavorably by more than two-thirds of voters.

“But when I’m calling balls and strikes in the reality that we’re living in, there is one party that is really driving this country off the tracks, right off the cliff, if they had the chance,” Cavanaugh continued. “And then there’s another party that’s trying to grab that steering wheel and pull us back on track. I believe the Democratic Party is in the right, and it’s a party that I want to be a part of.”

Cavanaugh said he can speak to voters who have soured on Democratic candidates in recent years.

“I want to push the boundaries of that tent a little bit wider, a little bit farther, and bring in those people, like myself, who, for a long time, didn’t think the best of the party,” he said. “But I think we can bring in a lot of those independent voters, and that those independent and maybe even Republican voters are going to be the difference in this election.”

A recipient of two Bronze Stars and the Combat Action Badge for his service in Iraq, Cavanaugh co-founded the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was named U.S. Army Athlete of the Year. His donation of a kidney to a stranger across the country in 2021 sparked what he describes as a chain of donations that saved another seven patients and led to his recent role as president and CEO of the National Kidney Donation Organization.

Cavanaugh holds the record as the fastest American to race the 4 Deserts Grand Slam ultramarathon series and won the race across Antarctica in 2022, after donating his kidney — in an attempt, he’s said, to demonstrate that kidney donation doesn’t hinder a donor’s future accomplishment. His book about the experience, “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before,” was published last month.

Cavanaugh and his ex-wife both live in Manitou Springs, where they’re jointly raising their two daughters.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Jessica Killin’s campaign and Colorado’s Democratic and Republican party chairs.