5th Congressional District candidate Jay Fawcett’s campaign got two additional boosts this week, with the announcements that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has elevated his race against Republican Doug Lamborn to “Emerging Race” status – and that Esquire magazine has endorsed Fawcett’s candidacy.
It’s unclear exactly how the nod from men’s fashion magazine will affect the Colorado race, other than Fawcett’s inspired response: “I guess I will have to get a new suit.”
But getting a boost from the DCCC is another matter entirely. The national Democratic committee identifies its “Emerging Race” list as “those candidates who have taken traditionally non-competitive districts and, through the strength of their campaigns, put themselves in a position to win in November,” according to the DCCC.
“With just 26 days to go, the DCCC is excited to give our top candidates the necessary strategic and financial boost they will need to win in November,” Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a press release. “Americans are looking for new leadership and a new direction and these Democratic candidates will put American families first when they get to Washington.”
Meanwhile, the list of Republicans who are willing to publicly throw their support behind the Democrat in a highly Republican-leaning district has grown – beyond what Lamborn campaign manager Jon Hotaling previously dismissed as “[Congressman Joel] Hefley and a handful of [Jeff] Crank supporters.”
On Aug. 17, Colorado Confidential reported several high-profile Colorado Springs Republicans who have lined up for Fawcett, an Air Force Academy graduate and retired lieutenant colonel who served in Desert Storm. They included city Councilman Scott Hente, longtime Republican activist and former city councilwoman Mary Ellen McNally, and business leaders James Stweart and Marv Strait.
The latest Republican leaders to lend their names of endorsement include Colorado Springs Councilman Jerry Heimlicher, Green Mountain Falls Mayor Tyler Stevens and George Culpepper, a former vice chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. The full list can be reviewed by clicking here.
“It’s not as unusual as you would think,” Hente said in an August interview. “We’re both retired Air Force Academy graduates, both Desert Storm veterans, we’re both Bronze Star recipients; Jay and I have a lot in common.”
Strait echoed the desire to have someone with military experience in Congress.
“I don’t think Lamborn has ever been in the military, and we’re a military town,” he said. “It seems to me that so much of our economy depends on having someone understand the military.”
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