This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
When U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs, took office in January, he promised to battle the Trump administration if it decided to move the headquarters of U.S. Space Command to Alabama from his 5th Congressional District.
“The fight is going to be on if that happens,” he told KOAA-TV as he began his first term in Congress.
But after President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that the relocation was happening — saying a big factor was Colorado’s broad use of mail ballots — Crank appears to be choosing flight over fight. That’s in contrast to Democrats, like Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is planning a lawsuit to stop the move.
Crank’s reaction underscores the highly charged political dynamics at play. Colorado Republicans may be unhappy about the relocation of Space Command and worried about how it will be viewed by voters, but they’re unwilling to cross Trump in making their displeasure known.
If they’re too critical of Trump, Colorado’s Republican members of Congress risk political fallout — lost endorsements, primary challenges, fewer campaign donations — but they also could put future federal projects in jeopardy.
“I don’t think there’s any question that our Republican legislators are in a tough spot,” said John Suthers, a Republican and the former mayor of Colorado Springs. “They disagree with the decision. It’s a wholly political decision. But for purposes of their own political careers, they have to be guarded in what they say in terms of the Trump administration.”
Suthers said Colorado’s prospects for future space growth are also part of the calculus.
“Colorado Springs is going to remain an epicenter of military and, hopefully, civilian space,” said Suthers, who was the city’s mayor from June 2015 to June 2023 and now works at the law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce estimates that Space Command — which is responsible for operating satellites, missile-warning systems and global communications — is tied to nearly 1,400 jobs in Colorado and has an annual economic impact of $1 billion. The Colorado Springs Chamber says the aerospace and defense industries account for at least 40% of the economy in Colorado Springs, employing more than 110,000 people.
The command was temporarily headquartered in Colorado Springs. At the end of Trump’s first term, he announced he was moving the headquarters to Alabama. President Joe Biden reversed that decision, opting to keep the command in Colorado. And then Trump reversed Biden at the beginning of September.
Crank posted on social media that he was “disappointed” by the president’s decision, and that he’s “concerned about how it will affect the hard-working men and women who support our military’s operational capability.” But he tried to present a silver lining amid his opposition.
“While such a move will take years to implement, I am confident that this is not an across-the-board move and that important assets and jobs related to the Space Command mission will remain in El Paso County,” he posted. “I have also been told that Space Force missions will continue to expand in our community, and our military installations will play an integral part in President Trump’s Golden Dome Initiative.”
Crank, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he thinks “when the dust settles, our community will have more jobs and more Department of Defense missions than today.”
Crank and the three other members of Colorado’s Republican congressional delegation issued a statement about a week after the relocation decision was made, doubling down on their spin. The statement said the move was “now likely (to) only impact approximately 1,000 positions in total,” down from 1,700.
“This marks a significant improvement,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman for Crank didn’t respond to requests for an interview in the days after the relocation was announced. On Monday, she said he wasn’t available to talk to The Colorado Sun this week.
The Sun couldn’t find any instance of Crank speaking to the media about the relocation. (After publication, the congressman’s spokeswoman pointed to two interviews Crank did on Space Command — one with a conservative talk radio station and another with The Gazette in which he repeated his written statements.)
Crank did, however, write an opinion piece for The Gazette in which he reiterated his statements on social media. (It was basically just a longer version of his statement on X.)
The opinion piece did not address Trump’s claims about mail ballots in Colorado or the president’s assertion that he was awarding Space Command to Alabama because its representatives “fought harder for it than anybody else.”
Trump recently endorsed Crank’s 2026 reelection bid.
Trump endorsed Crank during his first congressional bid, in 2024, too. But that only happened after the president first backed Crank’s primary opponent, then-Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams. (Williams supported Trump’s efforts to relocate Space Command.)
Colorado Republicans knew the Space Command relocation would be a political albatross. And they tried to make that argument to the Trump administration.
GOP leaders warned the White House that there was more to gain by keeping the command in Colorado, where Republican elected officials are basically an endangered species, than by moving it to Alabama, where the party enjoys broad political control.
Trump’s decision to relocate Space Command is poised to become a key line of attack for Democrat Jessica Killin as she seeks to unseat Crank next year.
Killin, an Army veteran and former chief of staff to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, said the relocation proves “how ineffective (Crank) has been as a member of Congress.”
“I thought that all of this crazy political kowtowing that he was doing was to hopefully keep Space Command here,” Killin told The Sun in an interview. “But I find it amazing that he couldn’t even do that.”
She said that Crank’s attempts to find good in the Space Command move are akin to putting lipstick on a pig.
“Still a pig,” she said. “Still a bummer. It still sucks. He knows. He knows that he failed. This is him making excuses.”
If she’s elected to Congress, Killin said her first order of business would be fighting to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs.
Meanwhile, Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City, used the relocation to attack Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton. Rutinel is running to unseat Evans next year.
“President Trump just sacrificed Colorado’s Space Command HQ to play politics, and Gabe Evans has done almost nothing to stop him,” Rutinel said in a written statement. “Gabe Evans’ lack of action shows he is unwilling to stand up for our state and the men and women who depend on these jobs.”
In the 4th Congressional District, Democrat Trisha Calvarese sent out a fundraising email with the headline “Boebert cost Colorado Space Command.” Calvarese alleged that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor, was guilty of “sabotage.”
Boebert, in an interview with Colorado Public Radio, said “it seems” the relocation is a done deal.
“We’re not losing our defense and aerospace industries. I believe that there’s still many more opportunities for that, and we will continue to fight for more missions,” she told CPR.
But Suthers is more hopeful. He pointed out that the move will take time and Trump will be out of office come early 2029. A midterm election is also coming up next year that could swing control of Congress.
Suthers said he found trying to influence Trump on Space Command was always best done behind the scenes. And he thinks the Colorado Republicans in Congress may have some tricks up their sleeve to quietly throw a wrench in the process.
“In the words of the great philosopher Yogi Berra,” Suthers said of the Yankees catcher, “it ain’t over till it’s over.”
