Before Jeff Crank went to Congress for Colorado Springs, he spent more than a decade hosting a talk-radio show on KVOR. The Colorado Times Recorder reviewed over 300 of those shows, from 2011 to 2021, looking at what Crank said about voting and elections.

What it found is a host who, election after election, told his audience that Democrats cheat. After the 2020 election, he said votes should be thrown out over a claim that had already been debunked.

2018: "She wants to steal it"

When the 2018 midterms went badly for Republicans, Crank said Democratic election officials in three states were rigging the count. On November 10, 2018, he said of Broward County, Florida's elections official: "She wants to control it because she wants to steal it."

He named Montana and Arizona as other places where it was "happening." In Florida, the Republican, Rick Scott, won the Senate race anyway.

2020: "Commit ballot fraud"

Two years later, Crank went further. On November 7, 2020, he told listeners that Democrats were blocking election observers in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit, and he laid out what he called their plan:

"The Democrats have a plan. They wanted to flood the country with mail-in ballots, which they did through COVID. They want to block observation of the counting of the ballots so that they can do things, commit ballot fraud, right?… And then they want to insist that all votes have to be counted and get all of the fraudulent votes lumped in with the legal votes."

That same morning, the New York Times had reported that there was no evidence observers were blocked from counting rooms.

A week later, on November 14, Crank was still repeating the claim, and he wanted votes thrown out because of it. "I think what needs to happen is if they can determine the precincts… that were being tabulated when observers were kept out, those have to be thrown out. They just have to," he said. "We know there was [fraud], right?"

On the same show, he brought on a right-wing podcaster who called the election "the biggest mail-in fraud ever perpetrated in history."

After January 6

After rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Crank called it a "tragedy" and the rioters "idiots." Ten days later, he was back to the idea behind it. Getting rid of voter ID and signature checks and moving to mail ballots, he said on January 16, was "about being able to set up a system where you can cheat at the margins. Let's be honest! And that does happen in the United States of America."

In April 2021, he told listeners the Biden administration wanted to let migrants in at the border and get them "addicted to getting government benefits and they'll all vote Democrat. It's all part of their plan. And it's all nefarious." That echoes the racist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, which Tucker Carlson had pushed on Fox News days earlier.

Now he votes on how you vote

These aren't just old radio clips. Crank is now a member of Congress, with a vote on the rules for how Americans register and vote.

In April 2025, Crank voted for the SAVE Act, roll call 102, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. We've explained how that bill is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and could keep millions of citizens from voting.

Crank didn't respond to questions about his specific quotes. A spokesperson for his campaign said the Colorado Times Recorder was "cherry-picking whatever they possibly can twist" from shows that have "been publicly available for years." The quotes above are what he said.

What the record shows

On his KVOR radio show, Jeff Crank said a Florida election official "wants to steal" the 2018 midterms and told listeners in November 2020 that Democrats planned to "commit ballot fraud." After the claim that observers were blocked had been debunked, he said the votes counted in those precincts "have to be thrown out." Ten days after January 6, he said changes to election laws were about being able to "cheat at the margins," and in Congress he voted for the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Source

Blame Claims: Jeff Crank Promoted Election Conspiracies by Attacking Democrats — Colorado Times Recorder. Image: Colorado Times Recorder.