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U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette’s 30-year career in Congress was brought to an end by a democratic socialist and first-time candidate born four months after DeGette first took office.
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Ph.D. student and former attorney who launched a long-shot primary challenge against DeGette last year, beat the congressional veteran in Colorado’s Democratic primary election for the 1st District.
The Associated Press called the race at 10:03 p.m. The 1st District covers Denver.
As of 10:30 p.m., Kiros led with 49% of the vote to DeGette’s 44%. A third candidate, University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, trailed behind with just over 7%.
Kiros’ victory follows a series of similar wins by left-wing challengers in New York last week, propelled by desire for generational change within Democratic leadership and a wave of discontent from younger voters who find themselves solidly to the left of the party establishment on issues like wealth inequality, climate change, and foreign policy.
“A year ago, a lot of experienced people told us this was impossible,” Kiros said in a speech after the race was called. “They said you can’t beat a 30-year incumbent. They said the establishment and the oligarchy is just too big and too powerful to overcome.”
“You are the proof that the power of organized people beats the power of organized money,” she told a crowd of ecstatic supporters in Denver. “I have to take a moment and thank every single one of you in this room, every single person that has volunteered, that has supported this campaign.”
Kiros was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and a long list of left-wing groups, including Justice Democrats, which supports progressive challengers in congressional races across the country.
She shook up the 1st Congressional District race in March when she dealt DeGette her first-ever defeat at the Democratic Party’s Denver assembly, taking the top spot on the ballot with 67% of the party delegate vote to DeGette’s 32.8%. James secured her spot on the ballot through petition signatures.
Kiros’ victory is by far the biggest win to date for a DSA-aligned, left-wing movement that has sought to shake up Colorado Democratic politics over the last decade. It follows the election of candidates like former state Rep. Elisabeth Epps of Denver in 2022, as well as several DSA-endorsed candidates to the Denver City Council. Some of those officials have later gone on to fall to more moderate primary challengers.
Super PAC spending
DeGette — a former attorney herself, who served two terms in the state House of Representatives before succeeding longtime 1st District Rep. Pat Schroeder in 1996 — has long been the most left-leaning member of Colorado’s congressional delegation.
In the campaign’s home stretch, she sought to brandish her progressive bona fides, like support for a single-payer healthcare system and for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She touted endorsements from leaders in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and invoked the experience she said would make her an effective champion for those priorities if Democrats take back the House of Representatives.
But Kiros assailed her opponent’s campaign for relying on donations from corporate PACs, and from benefiting from millions of dollars in late spending by super PACs — many of whose donors won’t be disclosed until the next Federal Election Commission reporting deadline in mid-July.
Groups that spent on DeGette’s behalf included Pro-Choice Majority Action and Project 218, which have spent on behalf of other incumbent or moderate candidates in other Democratic House primaries across the country; and the Mile High Accountability Project, a newly registered group.
‘This is a movement’
Kiros was fired from her position at the New York office of law firm Sidley Austin in late 2023, after she posted an open letter defending students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza from charges of antisemitism. She moved back to Denver, where she was raised after her family immigrated from Ethiopia when she was 11 months old, and worked as a barista before and during her campaign.
Kiros thanked DeGette for her service and leadership on issues like abortion rights.
“She helped build a community that welcomes my family to this city and to this district, and I’ll always be grateful for that,” Kiros said.
“We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment,” she added. “This is a movement, and we are just getting started.”
by Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected].
