Morning in Colorado Springs Again

Meet Joe Reagan, Independent Democrat in CO-05

This post is originally from January 2024 - to RSVP for the May 15 Zoom with Joe Reagan at 12pm ET / 9am PST you can RSVP here.

Colorado Springs evokes the American civic life of polarized nightmares: home to the dangerous merger of fundamentalism and politics, and to a GOP party chair who literally changed his name to “Let’s Go Brandon”.

But it recently has presaged a functional democratic future: the election of an independent mayor who united moderates from both parties now governs in a district known for military excellence, service and patriotism that transcends parties.

The next step in that future is Joe Reagan, an unannounced candidate for a congressional seat that has not been meaningfully contested in a decade. Reagan graduated from a military school and a business school, served two tours in Afghanistan as an Army Captain and has served as both a nonprofit and startup executive, and - like the plurality of CO-05 voters, and like Adam Frisch in CO-03 - was until recently not registered with either party. A married father of two public school students with broad executive experience, Reagan is exactly the type of leader who is repelled by our currently divisive and insane politics.

That’s exactly why he was called to explore a run. After months of engaging local community members to see who else could serve best, Joe filed to run for Congress as a Democrat on Thursday. And on Friday, the longtime GOP incumbent dropped out. 

The leading candidate to replace him? The guy who literally changed his name to Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams.

Drop Joe a line on Twitter and support Joe on ActBlue here. There are many recents for honorable, talented people not to run for office - a contribution today will make you a reason that leaders practice democracy, and protect it.