A House race in the blue stronghold of Denver has quickly become the next test of Democrats’ appetite for socialism as Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a 15-term incumbent, fends off a challenger endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Voters in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District will head to the polls Tuesday to decide between DeGette and two other candidates in the Democratic primary. Her chief competition is Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old former attorney who aligns herself with the Democratic Socialists of America. A recent surge of outside spending to prop up DeGette suggests the incumbent may be in trouble.
If Kiros succeeds, it would represent another victory for the Left after two incumbents were knocked out in House primaries in New York. Both were backed by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and both ran campaigns pitting themselves against the political class in Washington.
The sweep came as the Democratic Party debates its political identity after losing power with Donald Trump’s election as president in 2024.
On paper, DeGette is a progressive in good standing with the Left. She supports Medicare for All and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She’s also endorsed by major labor groups.
But her long tenure in Washington, where she’s served since 1997, and willingness to accept corporate PAC dollars have opened a lane for Kiros, who immigrated to the Denver area from Ethiopia as a young child.
It’s unclear whether Kiros can pull off another upset. Polling conducted on behalf of Justice Democrats, the group that helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to office, found Kiros ahead by 5 points, but running within the margin of error.
In terms of fundraising, DeGette has a sizable lead, and she is supported by several outside PACs that are infusing more than $1 million late in the race. The ads they’ve run to dent Kiros cast her as a recent transplant to Denver and claim that Trump “loves Democrats like Kiros.”
A third candidate, Wanda James, is a cannabis entrepreneur and regent for the University of Colorado.
One of the few wedge issues in the primary is Israel, and though DeGette supports ending all U.S. military assistance except defensive weaponry, Kiros has questioned the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
Kiros was fired from a New York law firm for denying that the view was antisemitic in a 2023 open letter, and her subsequent rhetoric has been denounced by Jewish leaders in Denver as fanning antisemitism.
More recently, Kiros sidestepped whether bigotry drove the deadly fire-bombing of Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colorado, last year.
Ocasio-Cortez is one of the few progressives to stay out of the primary and has generally taken a more cautious approach to endorsements. But DeGette has highlighted positive comments Ocasio-Cortez has made related to her work on Medicare for All in a bid to woo more liberal voters.
DeGette also notes she is in line to chair a key healthcare panel next year if Democrats retake the House majority, framing her seniority as a more effective counterweight to Trump.
“Now is not the time to gamble and send somebody with no experience to Washington,” DeGette said at a June debate.
Kiros, by contrast, has taken an anti-establishment line by advocating an 18-year limit on how long lawmakers can serve in Congress. She recently worked as a barista while studying for a graduate program in public policy.
HOW DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA ARE RESHAPING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM THE INSIDE
In total, DSA-backed candidates have won more than 30 races this cycle, according to a tracker published by the organization. Before the New York primaries, a socialist candidate won the Washington, D.C., mayoral contest earlier this month.
Given Denver’s liberal voting electorate, the winner of Tuesday’s primary is expected to defeat the Republican in this fall’s general election.