Jason Crow

Representative Jason Crow, along with five other Democrats in Congress with national-­security backgrounds, had recorded a video last November reminding those working in military and intelligence roles that they did not have to follow illegal orders. A message careful to stick to the letter of the law prompted President Donald Trump to call for its makers to be arrested and charged with treason. “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!” read a social media post that Trump publicly shared. A federal grand jury in Washington declined the Justice Department’s effort to indict the lawmakers. That victory hasn’t mitigated Crow’s anger at how he believes the President’s response put his family’s safety at risk.

“I’m really bad at sitting in a foxhole and having people lob grenades at me,” Crow, a former paratrooper and Army Ranger, tells TIME on a June afternoon at Democratic National Committee headquarters. “I’m going to lob them back.”

The fallout from the viral video placed Crow, 47, in the strongest national spotlight since 2019, when he was a House freshman tapped to be a prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial. In the interim, his stature on Capitol Hill has steadily grown, as Crow emerged as a go-to voice for his party on national security. The midterm elections could further elevate his standing, as he’s helped lead candidate recruitment for House Democrats, prioritizing veterans and others with backgrounds in national security.

In Crow’s mind, these elections will show voters that Democrats have learned how to run effectively on national-­security issues, while still hammering Republicans on the twin tentpoles of cost and corruption. At the same time, Crow says his party is in need of a hard reset before 2028—though, like many, he is still workshopping ideas for what might work.

“There is actually an opportunity to build something new—not rebuild, not go back, not try to reconstitute what once was, because Americans don’t want that,” he says.

Should Democrats take the House this fall, Crow is in prime position to be a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee’s ­majority. Should a Democrat reclaim the White House in 2028, his name is likely to come up on the short lists for Cabinet positions. He also has his eye on Colorado’s Senate seat, and is not shy about a possible White House run down the line.

First, though, Crow has to navigate this tricky political moment, one that has Democrats feeling ascendant but still staring down low approval ratings. It’s not entirely unfamiliar terrain for Crow, who rode an earlier anti-Trump wave while vowing to stand up to party leaders he viewed as failing to meet the moment. Only this time, he’s on the inside.

Even still, he was far from a sure thing when he challenged Representative Mike Coffman, a fixture in Colorado Republican circles since Crow was in middle school. “This was an unwinnable race, remember?” Crow recalls with a smirk.

To show he wasn’t running against just Trump, but Washington writ large, Crow vowed not to vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker if Democrats won a House majority, which they did. When it came time for the vote, Crow defied the most powerful Democrat in Washington by casting his ballot for Tammy Duckworth, a fellow veteran representing Illinois in the Senate.

Ten months later, when it became clear that the Trump impeachment train was leaving the station for its first go-round, Pelosi rang up her former detractor. It was, Crow said later, “like being called into the principal’s office.” Pelosi needed someone with his skill set and temperament to convey the stakes of Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine without coming off as a partisan hack. While the House voted to impeach, the Senate declined to convict.

For Crow during that period, death threats became routine. He had an armed guard outside his house. A security detail walked his kids to school. Which brings him to last year. The security had to be called back. His “illegal orders” video brought about another round of threats—including some from Trump that Crow’s office referred to the Capitol Police, according to an email obtained by TIME.

Crow’s national-­security background has helped propel his reach in Congress, where he’s the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee as well as the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee’s spy panel. When House Democrats needed someone to run point on a panel investigating the failed assassination against Trump in Butler, Pa., they tapped Crow. Last week, Crow and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, forced a House vote to halt the war in Iran, with the measure passing 214-208.

But it’s his work helping Democrats win back the House that may win him the most chits. As a leader in candidate recruitment for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Crow has his hands in just about every contested race in the country, and is making a point of finding people he believes voters will view as “street fighters.”

“The oath of service I took doesn’t expire,” says JoAnna Mendoza, a retired Marine Corps drill sergeant and Crow recruit who is taking on Representative Juan Ciscomani, an Arizona Republican, in one of the top toss-up races in the country.

Mendoza has the support of Crow and the DCCC well before her primary. It’s a different story in some House races in other states where the DCCC either professed neutrality or backed a different candidate from whomever Crow endorsed through his political action committee, Service First.