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Photo Thalassa Raasch for The New York Times
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I bet being interviewed by Jason Crow could make a weak person shit his pants. Maybe a strong person too. And Jason Crow, who has represented the Colorado 6th District since 2018, is on course to interview a whole squirming bunch of fresh-faced Democrats who might be thinking they're potential House candidates next year, or Democrats successful in other lines of work who haven't given running for high office a first thought -- for Jason Crow, as of ten days ago, is the new co-chair for candidate recruitment for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
Representative Crow can flat-out stare down a camera. He projects granite -- integrity that ain't messing around, a high intelligence, a b.s. detection system unimpressed by status, wealth, or pure cussedness. Crow earned that mensch character growing up in a working-class family. He did construction to afford college, joined the National Guard and R.O.T.C. programs, became a paratrooper and Army Ranger, completing three combat tours (with a Bronze Star to his credit). He's a man of honor. In 2018 he unseated a five-term Republican congressman in the Colorado 6th CD.
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January 6, 2021: Jason Crow comforts a
hyper-ventilating Rep. Susan Wild
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When Crow arrived in the House in 2019, his very first vote was
against Nancy Pelosi as speaker, on the grounds that it was time for a new generation. A maverick from the get-go and even now Pelosi
praises him as an outstanding representative for the working class, "the center" of what Democrats are supposed to represent. Pelosi cited
his work as a House manager for Trump’s first impeachment and as a member of the intelligence committee, along with his bravery during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trapped on the House floor after most members had been evacuated, Crow, "shifting into battle mode, coached his colleagues on what to do if the chamber was breached, including little things like removing their member pins so they wouldn’t be as easily identifiable by the mob."
He tested Pelosi as a raw freshman, and last July, as a seasoned statesman who's won reelection in a reddish district twice, he confronted Joe Biden about the coming election disaster on a Zoom call with moderate House members, warning the president that “without a major change,” the party was headed for defeat. He questioned Biden’s age (yes, he did), which got Biden testy. “I don’t want to hear that crap,” Biden barked, according to Politico. But he did hear it, for eight days later, Biden dropped his re-election bid.
In his first three terms in the House, Crow earned the ranking as fifth-most-effective House Democrat by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. All
10 bills he co-sponsored became law.
He projects blue-collar, heartland sensibilities and values that AOC, a master in her own right, understands as essential for growing the party. “Leaning into working-class politics is deeply, deeply important,” Ocasio-Cortez
told the NYTimes.
BONUS for your Bingo Card: Crow grew up hunting “everything that flies or walks or runs through the woods,” and he recognizes the importance of hunting in many people’s lives. “For us to ignore that and to write that off or to malign it — and for some Democrats it’s literally not to know what the hell they’re talking about,”
he said, “is unforgivable.” He knows guns. He owns guns. He defends gun ownership and also wants the weapons of war off the streets.
Michelle Cottle called him a "good talker." "He has a gift for explaining things in a way that sounds so straightforward and common-sensical that even his ideological opponents seem impressed."
Crow has been a recurring guest on conservative shows on Fox News and elsewhere: "He believes Democrats must go everywhere and talk to everyone — especially those who disagree with them. 'Maybe I’m not reaching the grumpy guy watching Fox News, but maybe I’m reaching the spouse who’s in the same room. Maybe I’m reaching the children,”
he said. “I’m sure as hell not ceding the ground. I’m not allowing these echo chambers to go uncontested.”
I like this guy. I like the fight in him, the obvious courage to buck his own tribe. I know we wouldn't agree on everything, but I want character like that to lead the nation.
Jason Crow Is Looking for a Few Good People
As co-chair of recruitment for the DCCC, Crow has outlined the qualities that he's most interested in:
“people of integrity, servant leaders who understand their communities, who are respected by their communities." Crow talks a lot about "servant leadership," a sincere middle American idea that “every leader needs to consider themselves a servant of the people that they are leading” -- a concept with biblical roots. Crow looks for prior service. What has that person done with their life before politics? Have they built a business? Have they served in the military or Peace Corps? "What have you done outside of politics that shows that you know how to work with a broad swath of people?"
“I see so many people who fake working class in this business," Crow told
Michelle Cottle. "You can’t put on a Carhartt jacket and brand-new boots and then walk into a construction site and have anyone think you’re going to be legitimate .... you can tell instantly by somebody’s hands who they are and whether they’re a working person or not. You do a callus check. Does the person have calluses, or do they have soft hands? You can’t fake that.”
His advice (
via Michelle Cottle) to Democratic candidates: "Get personal":
“You have to show a genuine interest in people, and you have to be curious about them,” he said. “You just can’t come right in and start a policy discussion and start beating people over the heads with your policy prescriptions. That’s not the way you build trust — you know, start waving around our 21-point plans. You’ll immediately be shut out. You have to sit down and ask about people’s lives.” He added, “Once you build a relationship, then you can actually have tough discussions.”
