Crow talks with voters at a campaign event prior to the June primary.

In July, the New York Times asked why democrats couldn’t win Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District. To outside observers, the Sixth represents an increasingly diverse population—demographics that the Democrats could do well with.

But since its creation in 1983, the district has elected Republicans. In recent years, Mike Coffman, now seeking his sixth term, found enough support to knock down several high-profile Democratic contenders over the years. Jason Crow, a lawyer, former Army Ranger, and Stapleton-Aurora resident hopes to change things.

Crow’s voter outreach is crucial to delivering his message of “Servant Leadership.”

Crow says he is the first combat veteran, the first parent and the first person without a political background to run in this race. To that end, he hopes to represent a new generation of candidates that he hopes will get elected to positions across the U.S.

“Fundamentally, you just need to get new people in there. We’re not going to change that culture and we certainly are not going to change our current trajectory with the same people,” Crow says. New candidates, along with campaign finance reform and removing politics from the creation of voter district boundaries are among Crow’s prescriptions for moving through the gridlock and partisanship in today’s politics.

“You don’t have to look at the news too long to see how different the environment is,” Crow says, referring to the divisiveness of the current administration. “We have a president who wants to try and divide us at every turn and pit people against each other—and that’s just not who we are.

An October 2012 Front Porch article about Jason Crow included this image of him holding a photo of himself in Afghanistan. Crow now lives in a new home in the Aurora section of Stapleton.

“You know, I think there is certainly hope for cooperation,” Crow says, again pointing to the importance of a new generation and new types of leadership, specifically people who follow a concept of “servant leadership.” He adds, “I think it’s less to do with whether you’re a veteran or not. It has more to do with your view of politics and service.

There are certainly Republicans and unaffiliated who have that kind of servant leadership, and if they want to do the right thing… I am going to work with them.” But with institutionalized non-cooperation in place in current politics, Crow says he is “calling for new leadership on both sides.”

Crow says elements like lopsided districting don’t provide “a lot of incentive” to compromise. And money is “really ruining our politics and out democracy.”  However, he thinks the impetus for change on both sides is getting a new generation into office. “We just have to get people into elected office who have servant leadership in their hearts and who want to do the right thing and serve their country and community. Until we do that, people can’t expect anything to change.”