“We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment,” Melat Kiros told backers late Tuesday, after The Associated Press called her race. She had just beaten Rep. Diana DeGette, who has held the Denver seat since 1997, in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s first congressional district.
Kiros is 29. She was born in Ethiopia the year DeGette arrived in Congress. The Guardian reported that she is a democratic socialist, and that her win in a solidly Democratic district all but assures her a seat in November. The Republican nominee is Christy Peterson.
From a fired associate to a nominee
Kiros graduated from Notre Dame’s law school in 2022. In 2023 she wrote a blog post rejecting claims that law students who protested Israel’s response to the October 7 attack were antisemitic. The New York firm where she worked, Sidley Austin, fired her when she would not take it down. She went into politics.
Her platform includes Medicare for All, universal childcare and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Bernie Sanders endorsed her, as did the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats. She also made U.S. support for Israel a central issue. In an interview with Colorado Public Radio she accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and called for an arms embargo. DeGette opposes sending offensive arms to Israel, but told the station she believes the country has a right to exist and defend itself.
DeGette’s campaign went after some of Kiros’s recent remarks. Asked by 9News whether a 2025 firebombing of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder was driven by antisemitism, Kiros said: “I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator. All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.” In the same interview she called the 9/11 attacks “inevitable” for the United States, because, she said, American policy had destabilized much of the Middle East.
Money and message
DeGette, 68, sits in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and backs Medicare for All and abolishing ICE. Kiros ran against her mainly on age and energy. Drop Site reported that super PACs funded by AIPAC and big tech donors put roughly $2 million behind the incumbent on the eve of the vote.
Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said the group’s candidates keep winning because Democratic voters want leaders who will “bring the fight to the corporations raising our prices.” The group says it is having its most successful cycle yet, with six primary wins. One was Darializa Avila Chevalier’s upset of five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York a week earlier.
That New York result drew a response. Days later, more than a dozen centrist Democrats signed an open letter stating, “we are capitalist, not socialist.”
Rest of the Colorado ballot
Attorney General Phil Weiser edged out Sen. Michael Bennet in the race for governor, according to the AP. Bennet had been an early favorite and had nearly $3 million in support from Michael Bloomberg. Weiser campaigned in part by accusing him of going too easy on Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees. “The future of Colorado will not be decided by out-of-state billionaires, by corporations or special interests,” Weiser told supporters.
In the state’s most competitive House district, progressive state Rep. Manny Rutinel beat a more moderate Democrat. He will face Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in November, in one of a handful of seats that could decide control of the House.
Sen. John Hickenlooper was the incumbent who survived. He fended off a progressive challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales and will meet Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley, who ran unopposed, in the fall.
Sources
- Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeats 15-term incumbent in Colorado House primary
- Another Blow to Democratic Establishment As Melat Kiros Unseats 30-Year Incumbent in Colorado
