Socialist Hot Streak Continues As Radical Leftist Unseats 15-Term Democrat

Melat Kiros Defeats Incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st District Primary

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st congressional district on Tuesday. With 93 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Kiros received 51.3 percent to DeGette’s 41.7 percent, a margin of 9.6 percentage points. A third candidate, Wanda James, received 7 percent.

DeGette, who has represented the district since 1997, will not return to Congress if Kiros prevails in November. The district has not elected a Republican since 1970, and Republican nominee Christy Peterson faces long odds in the general election.

Kiros, 29, was born in Ethiopia and moved to the United States with her parents as an infant. She holds degrees in economics and political science from Washington College and a law degree from Notre Dame. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in public affairs at the University of Colorado and works as a barista. She practiced law for approximately 15 months before her termination in late 2023.

Kiros has proposed several policy changes, including expanding publicly owned housing, making college tuition free at public institutions, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 50 percent, ending at-will employment, imposing a moratorium on certain AI development, abolishing ICE, permitting gender-affirming medical interventions for individuals of all ages, and shifting some emergency response functions to community-based teams. She has also called for immediate citizenship for all undocumented immigrants present in the United States.

In a radio interview, Kiros stated that abolishing ICE represents one step toward immigration reform and advocated an expedited citizenship process that would not require substantial fees. She has attributed the September 11, 2001, attacks to U.S. foreign policy and described the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks as “the inevitable consequence of apartheid.”

Kiros was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Her campaign has drawn attention alongside other recent primary victories by democratic socialists in New York. Rep. Ro Khanna of California described those results as evidence of “a new, strong, and bold Democratic party.” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has argued that socialists understand economics and can address problems created by existing economic arrangements. Kiros has said voters view capitalism as responsible for economic, democratic, and climate-related problems and seek alternative economic and governmental structures centered on working families.

Kiros’s employment at a law firm ended after she published a Medium post criticizing statements by law firms that called on law school deans to address antisemitic language and campus protests following the October 7 attacks. In a November 2023 letter, she questioned why calls for the elimination of the Israeli state were characterized as antisemitic.

The primary outcome follows three other democratic socialist primary wins in New York the previous week.