Democratic socialists achieved a fresh set of bragging rights after Melat Kiros unseated 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District — the latest sign that the party’s left flank is increasingly willing to topple its own establishment.
The result wasn’t even close. Ms. Kiros, 29, a first‑time candidate, beat Ms. DeGette Tuesday by almost 10 points, according to the latest tally. University of Colorado Regent Wanda James finished a distant third.
The outcome ends Ms. DeGette’s three‑decade run in Congress and underscores how strong DSA‑aligned candidates have become in deep‑blue districts.
Ms. Kiros used her victory speech to make clear she sees the win as a mandate for urgency.
“Denver voters of all ages, of all races, of all religions sent a clear message: We will not wait!” she told supporters. Rattling off her priority list, she pledged to take the fight to President Trump and the “oligarchy,” abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pass Medicare for All and reject corporate PAC money.
That urgency carried directly into the campaign’s sharpest policy divide: Israel and Palestine. She vowed to fight against the pro‑Israel lobby AIPAC and for “ending the genocide in Palestine.” She said “fundamental change can, and will, happen if we fight for it,” saying Denver had sent that message “to both parties, to Donald Trump, and to the entire country.”
The victory in Denver also came a week after three democratic socialists won New York congressional primaries with a helping hand from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has become the movement’s poster boy after bulldozing over the party’s establishment a year ago.
Voters in Washington also elected a new mayor aligned with democratic socialists: Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. councilmember and self‑described democratic socialist, who won the Democratic primary and is heavily favored in the deep‑blue capital.
Still, democratic socialists running in other Colorado races, with a more politically diverse electorate, did not fare as well.
Sen. John Hickenlooper defeated state Sen. Julie Gonzales, with the latest vote count showing him leading by more than 10 points, and will face Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley in November.
Ms. Kiros, a former lawyer and barista who is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Public Affairs, was raised in Aurora after her parents emigrated from Ethiopia when she was a baby.
She was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 after posting an open letter defending pro‑Palestinian student protesters in New York against charges of antisemitism and arguing that the “Israeli government has weaponized anti‑Semitism to defend its crimes against the Palestinian people and quell any resistance or critique against it.”
Given the district’s deep blue hue, she is all but assured of reaching Congress. Voters there have not elected a Republican since 1970. Ms. Kiros is set to face Republican Christy Peterson in November.
Ms. DeGette was not endorsed by AIPAC. Pro‑Israel groups, however, did spend more than a million dollars on television ads against Ms. Kiros in the race’s final weeks.
The Israel‑Palestine issue was the clearest policy divide between the two candidates. Ms. DeGette called for a two‑state solution, while Ms. Kiros has said Israel should no longer be a Jewish state.
Ms. Kiros also called for a full U.S. arms embargo on Israel.
