Candidates for El Paso County Commissioner Districts 1 and 5 took part in a candidate forum at Church for All Nations — just down the hall from a room labeled “UFO Nephilim and the Coming Deception” — this week. The forum was moderated by Ken Davis, chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, and hosted by the church’s Culture Impact Team, which promotes far-right policies and speakers.
District 1 candidates included former Academy School District 20 Board of Education and El Paso County Commissioner candidate Lindsay Moore, Monument Academy board member Ryan Graham — all Republicans — and Gavin Rainey, the secretary for the El Paso County Young Dems. District 5’s Republican candidates included incumbent Commissioner Lauren Nelson and former El Paso County Republican Party Chair Vickie Tonkins, while Christian Seale, an action team leader with the El Paso County Young Dems, was the lone Democrat for District 5 at the event.
Redistricting in 2023 provided El Paso County Democrats with two newly competitive districts – Districts 3 and 5. In 2024, Democrat Naomi Lopez lost to Republican Bill Wysong, so this year’s El Paso County Commissioner race could result in the first elected Democrat to the board since the Nixon Administration. The other Democrats, former Colorado Springs City Councilor Yolanda Avila, and community activist Jacqueline Armendariz, did not take part in the forum.
“I hear all too often, especially from Democrats, that they’re afraid to be in front of all of our residents,” said Seale, to the largely conservative audience. “That they’re afraid of you. I’ll tell you, sitting here, I’m not afraid of you. What I see sitting across from me are fellow Americans, voters, people who care about their republic. I appreciate you all.”
Many of the Republican candidates have a long history in conservative intra-party skirmishes and culture war battles in El Paso County. “For the last six years I have faithfully served on the Monument Academy school board — five of those years as a board president — where I have boldly pushed back on radical ideologies, government overreach, and those that are intent on destroying our rights as parents,” said Graham. “For 11 years I had the privilege of serving my community as a professional firefighter before medically retiring. Over the past four years I’ve also served on The El Paso County Community Corrections Board. Prior to that, for three years I served as the chairman of House District 19, and for the past 20 years I’ve been a small business owner. Every day I think about the world that my two children are growing up in and I will do everything in my power to protect them, to guide them, and to lead them just as I will be for the citizens of El Paso County. Our citizens that have chosen to call this place home deserve that type of tenacity within their leadership. We all understand the playbook of the radical Democrats, for they are so very drunk on power. In order for that to drive the final nail in the red coffin of this state, they must seize control of El Paso County, probably the largest county in population and one of the last remaining conservative strongholds.”
Lindsay Moore, who challenged Holly Williams for her commissioner seat in 2022 as part of a slate of “grassroots” candidates, discussed her experience. “I own and run a homeschool co-op where we don’t just educate,” she said. “We teach students with biblical and constitutional principles the founding principles of our republic every single day.”
Tonkins, whose embattled tenure as GOP chair saw multiple attempts to remove her from her position, focused on crime and public safety. “There is some very simple things that we could do in our own neighborhoods that can protect us from crime,” she said. “Turn your lights on at night. I know that sounds so simple, but it’s the truth. A criminal is gonna be less likely to come on your porch and knock on your door and try to break in if a light is on, because they can be seen. We have a D score in crime. You know that’s failing, right? That means our crime is slowly ticking up.”
Tonkins claims of increased crime are at odds with statements from Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, who touted a decrease in crime during last year’s State of the City address, and held a press conference last month describing the downward crime trend since 2024.
Much of the evening’s conversation was dominated by discussion of the proposed Buc-ee’s in Palmer Lake, which led to Mayor Glant Havenar resigning over furor from residents about the development.
“Land use considerations for county commissioners are a major part of the work that we do,” explained Nelson. “It’s considered quasi-judicial. That means we are acting as a judge in a hearing. So we hear the evidence and we have certain criteria that we measure against to decide whether to approve or not approve a land use application. The burden of proof is on the applicant. It means this process mirrors criminal hearings, which are tried and true. So the question about reforming the hearing process, I don’t know that that is necessary because we are mirroring something that is already established that every citizen should be able to benefit from due process. And so an applicant has purchased property and the government – you don’t want the government telling you what to do with your land, right? So that would be government overreach. So we need to make sure that we are respecting private property rights as elected officials and coming into that hearing with neutrality. You don’t want your judge already coming into a court hearing, already making a decision before they hear the evidence. That’s against our constitution.”
Primary elections are June 30.
