The Democratic nominee in Colorados Fifth Congressional District, Jessica Killin, is running as a champion of women and families even as her record is intertwined with allegations of misogyny and abuse surrounding former second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Killin has amassed support from a slate of influential left-wing womens organizations despite her close association with Emhoff, whose personal conduct has drawn serious scrutiny. Killin, who served as Emhoffs chief of staff from 2023 until the end of the Biden administration, has been endorsed by EMILYs List, which bills itself as "the nation's largest resource for women in politics," and by Moms Fed Up, a group that says it aims to elect mothers who will "enhance the lives of families across the nation" and build a society "where the voices of mothers are heard" and "valued." After receiving backing from Elect Democratic Women, Killin declared, "As a woman who has navigated challenges in both professional and personal life, I understand firsthand the need for leaders who will stand up for women and families."
Those lofty claims sit uneasily beside her tenure as Emhoffs top aide while damaging stories about his treatment of women emerged into public view. In August 2024, Emhoff admitted he had an affair with his childrens nanny during his first marriage, acknowledging that the relationship contributed to his eventual divorce, even as progressive womens groups, including EMILYs List, remained conspicuously silent, Fox News Digital reported.
The revelations did not stop there, as an ex-girlfriend soon came forward with allegations of physical abuse and demeaning behavior. She claimed that Emhoff "slapped me so hard I spun around" and said she was "disgusted" by his "persona of a perfect spouse," accusations he has denied, insisting he never hit a woman. The same woman accused him of "intentionally objectifying me to diminish me" by giggling over a bikini photograph he took that cropped out her head, adding, "That's the kind of person he is," in comments to the Daily Mail.
Former colleagues at the elite law firm Venable painted a similarly troubling picture of Emhoffs conduct toward women in the workplace. They described him as a "misogynist" who allegedly "retaliated against" young female staffers who "didn't flirt" back and who hired his unqualified "trophy secretary," part-time model Katya Calderone, because she was "pretty," according to the Daily Mail. These colleagues also recounted that Emhoff hosted male-only, in-office "cocktail parties" and behaved "very flirty" toward young female staffers, behavior that would normally draw outrage from the very advocacy groups now rallying behind his former chief of staff.
Killin, a former Army paratrooper who now presents herself as a pragmatic moderate, has declined to address any of these allegations or her role in supporting Emhoff during the controversies. She did not respond to a request for comment, nor did any of the liberal womens groups that have endorsed her, leaving voters to infer where she truly stands on the treatment of women when it conflicts with partisan loyalty.
Despite the baggage, Killins campaign has become a priority for national Democrats eager to flip a historically Republican seat anchored in conservative-leaning El Paso County. Support from womens groups and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee comes as Killin faces a challenging but increasingly competitive race against Republican Rep. Jeff Crank, with a July poll funded by her campaign showing her trailing by just 1 percentage point. While Republicans have held the Fifth District since it was created after the 1970 census, Democrats now see an opening, and the DCCC has thrown its weight behind Killins bid.
The GOPs margins in the district have narrowed in recent cycles, reflecting demographic and political shifts in and around Colorado Springs. Cranks 14-point victory in 2024 was the tightest on record, and Colorado Springs elected an independent mayor in 2023, the first time in at least 45 years that a non-Republican captured the office, developments Democrats hope signal a broader realignment.
On the stump, Killin has tried to distance herself from the hyper-partisan image of national Democrats, even as she remains tied to the BidenHarris orbit through her work for Emhoff. She brands herself as part of "Team Normal" and says she is "exhausted by the chaos, uncertainty, partisan bickering, tribalism," language clearly aimed at swing voters weary of Washington dysfunction. "I'm running for Congress because Washington needs leaders who are focused on actually getting things done not partisan name-calling and bitter culture wars," Killin said when she launched her campaign, noting that her White House title included deputy assistant to former president Joe Biden.
Yet the rhetoric of normalcy and unity clashes with the record of the political figures who elevated her and with whom she chose to align. Emhoff has labeled president Donald Trump an "agent of chaos and cruelty" and "unhinged, unfit, and un-American," language that hardly reflects a desire to cool partisan tempers. Harris has gone even further, denouncing Trump as a "petty tyrant" who was "unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power" and attacking him as a "fascist," framing political disagreement in apocalyptic terms.
Biden himself has repeatedly indulged in personal insults that undercut the Democrats professed commitment to civility and respect. On the campaign trail, he called an Iowa man "fat" and derided a New Hampshire woman as a "lying dog-faced pony soldier," remarks that would have dominated headlines for weeks had they come from a Republican. He also dismissed Fox Newss Peter Doocy as a "stupid son of a bitch," a slur that underscored the contempt many in the current Democratic leadership hold for conservative media and its audience.
Killins policy endorsements further highlight the ideological gap between her campaign branding and the priorities of the district she seeks to represent. Giffords PAC has praised her support for "commonsense gun safety measures" such as strengthening background checks, imposing waiting periods, and expanding "extreme risk protection orders," or red flag laws, measures that critics argue erode due process and chip away at the Second Amendment. Those positions sit uneasily with the culture of El Paso County, most of which lies within the Fifth District and which in 2019 passed a resolution declaring itself a "Second Amendment preservation county" in opposition to a state red flag bill.
Local resistance to Denvers gun-control agenda has only intensified as the legislature has advanced new restrictions on lawful firearm ownership. In 2026, El Paso County sheriff Joseph Roybal condemned fresh limits on certain semiautomatic firearms as "the most egregious and unconstitutional anti-Second Amendment bill in Colorado's history," the Pikes Peak Courier reported. A Colorado Springs gun shop owner, describing a surge of residents seeking to exercise their rights, told the publication his store was "jam-packed" after the law passed and that he sold so many firearms that "all my bills are paid," adding that he had already run out of inventory and been forced to restock three times.
For conservative voters in Colorados Fifth District, the contrast is stark: a Democratic candidate who markets herself as a steady, non-ideological problem-solver, yet built her career in the inner circle of a Democratic establishment defined by harsh rhetoric, progressive social priorities, and hostility to gun rights. As Killin courts suburban moderates with talk of "Team Normal" and bipartisan cooperation, her silence on Emhoffs alleged behavior and her embrace of national gun-control groups raise fundamental questions about whether her loyalties lie with the values of Colorado Springs or with the agenda of the BidenHarris wing of the Democratic Party.
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