In a high-profile primary Tuesday night, 30-year incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., lost to a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed challenger.
In a Democratic primary for a deep-blue House seat anchored in Denver, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old socialist, defeated DeGette.
It was a major victory for the socialist left Tuesday evening.
The DSA had been hoping DeGette’s loss would be evidence of its building momentum after a slate of socialist candidates won Democratic primaries in New York City last week.
“Today, the East Coast, next week the Mountain West,” the DSA wrote in a social media post last week.
If elected in November, Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, is likely to join the far-left group known as the Squad and become one of a handful of vocal socialists in the House chamber.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the anti-incumbent leftist organization, Justice Democrats, backed the millennial challenger.
Kiros’ insurgent primary bid was also bolstered by controversial socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who said Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and praised the Chinese Communist Party.
DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was seeking a 16th term in the House, touting her progressive bona fides.
She said her seniority on a powerful House committee would allow her to push for legislation creating Medicare-for-All, a long-standing priority of the party’s far left flank.
DeGette, who was supported by former CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also noted her role as an impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021.
DeGette and Kiros disagreed on many policy issues, but their views on Israel and antisemitism were especially divergent.
Kiros also faulted DeGette for taking corporate PAC money.
In 2023, Kiros, a PhD student and lawyer, was fired from a New York firm after publishing an open letter in which he asserted that pro-Palestinian student protesters calling for the elimination of Israel were not antisemitic and appeared to endorse Hamas.She also referred to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against the Jewish state as the “inevitable consequence of apartheid” and wouldn’t categorize the firebombing of protesters in Boulder last year who were demanding the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as antisemitic.
“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros told Colorado’s 9News in a recent television interview. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.”
A June 2025 bipartisan resolution condemning the attack as part of a “rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals” won every present lawmaker’s support, except for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted present.
Kiros has also suggested the United States deserved 9/11.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East that forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response,” Kiros told 9News when asked if she thought the terror attack was “the inevitable consequence of American foreign policy.”
“And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros continued.
DeGette argued that Kiros’ embrace of Piker and her remarks about antisemitism and 9/11 were disqualifying.
“I’m shocked and disgusted that Kiros is doubling down on excusing terrorism and the murder of innocent people,” the 30-year incumbent wrote on Facebook earlier this month.