Two Fountain City Council members and a competitive boxer are running to replace the outgoing El Paso County commissioner for District 4.

The district, the largest by geographical area, encompasses a swath of southeastern El Paso County including Fountain and Security-Widefield. The district has historically elected Republican commissioners and continues to lean red, if less significantly, after a 2023 redistricting process.

Candidates are running to replace Longinos Gonzalez, who is a term-limited Republican on the five-member Board of County Commissioners. Both the Democratic and Republican candidates, Detra Duncan and Cory Applegate, serve on Fountain City Council, while one candidate, Luis Ybarra Jr., is running as unaffiliated.

An outspoken advocate for health care options, Duncan said she sees areas of the district, especially in Security-Widefield, in need of primary care doctors, clinics and hospitals.

Acknowledging that the county commissioners “do not build hospitals,” she said as a commissioner she would advocate for expanding health care options .

Duncan said as a commissioner she would bring attention to communities she believes have been neglected in District 4, especially in Security-Widefield.

“I think it’s forgotten,” she said. “I’ve been here 37 years and it looks the same.”

Duncan is in her second term on the Fountain City Council. She said she is running as a Democrat to avoid the Republican primary fracas but wants to “reach across the board” to represent the concerns of all constituents.

Applegate, the Republican nominee, said his priorities include improving public safety, infrastructure and water availability.

He said as a commissioner he would “steward” federal and state funding into needed road improvement projects for Security-Widefield.

“They are so reliant on the county commission, because they don’t have a mayor and they don’t have a City Council,” he said.

Both candidates said they would prioritize funding for county public safety. Duncan said she would strive to increase salaries for the El Paso County District Attorney and Sheriff’s offices, which she said were understaffed. Applegate said he would focus on supporting the Sheriff’s Office.

Ybarra is a former competitive boxer running as an unaffiliated candidate for District 4. The 23-year-old graduate of Widefield High School said he was discouraged by the progress that party-affiliated commissioners have made in addressing long-running issues in his community, including flooding from crumbling infrastructure and lack of access to local medical care.