What’s Next for Democratic Socialists? It Could Be Denver.

DENVER — The growing wave of anti-incumbent energy could crash into Denver on Tuesday.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) is staring down one of the toughest primary challenges in her 30-year congressional career from 29-year-old attorney and democratic socialist Melat Kiros.

The ground was already shifting here even before Democratic Socialists of America insurgents rolled through New York’s primaries this week. Last week, Kiros picked up an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, while a trio of pro-DeGette super PACs has pumped more than $1.3 million — and continues to add more — into ads attacking Kiros, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. This week, pro-DeGette ads are outnumbering Kiros’ by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.

“Melat’s got a lot of momentum, and she’s shown what real leadership can look like,” said Colorado state Rep. Yara Zokaie, who has endorsed Kiros. “I don’t agree with everything she says, but she has provided a vision of what it could look like to have a representative who is going to build a grassroots movement. … Momentum does not move backwards, and [Melat] has it.”

Or as a Colorado Democratic strategist not involved in the race said of DeGette: “It might be too late, but all this money, last minute, means she is in real trouble.”

In an interview with NOTUS, Kiros said her campaign has seen a surge in donations and volunteers since New York’s primaries. New York DSA organizers are also planning to be in Denver this weekend to help for the final door-knocking push, she said.

“We saw the establishment, the leadership, in our party being out of step with the desires of the voters,” Kiros said. “I think we’re going to see the same thing happening here in Denver on Tuesday because voters want to see elected leaders that are unbought and unafraid.”

A victory for Kiros here — in a primary defined by all the generational and ideological differences rippling through the Democratic Party, including the U.S.-Israel relationship — would add an exclamation point to progressives’ efforts to grow their power in Washington. That movement has already been strengthened by wins in New York, California and Maine. Progressives are also eagerly watching Abdul El-Sayed’s bid in Michigan’s Senate primary and state Rep. Francesa Hong’s campaign for governor in Wisconsin as the next benchmarks in the primary calendar.

DeGette, backed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is leaning hard into her own progressive bonafides, airing a TV ad featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who has not endorsed in the race, and a digital video with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), who has backed DeGette.

Due to her congressional seniority, DeGette said she’s poised to take over the Committee on Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, where she’ll push to pass Medicare for All.

“If I lost, then Ms. Kiros would not even be on that committee because they don’t put freshmen on that committee, and she would have no ability to pass that bill,” DeGette said in an interview. “Frankly, what it shows is a lack of knowledge of how power in Washington can really help pass an important bill like Medicare for All.”

DeGette rejected the comparison of her primary to those in New York.

“Denver, Colorado, is not New York City,” she said. Indeed, the early vote totals in Colorado are still skewing much older, according to data released by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.

At least three pro-DeGette super PACs are spending to boost the congresswoman, the clearest sign that Kiros has started to gain traction, Colorado Democrats said. A pop-up super PAC, Project 218, is running TV ads accusing Kiros of having “moved to Denver last year,” bringing an “extreme agenda with her.” DeGette also emphasized her “deep roots” in the district.

Kiros grew up in Denver, where her family emigrated to from Ethiopia when she was 11 months old. In 2023, Kiros, then an attorney at Sidley Austin in New York, jumped into the national spotlight. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, she wrote a Medium post that argued it wasn’t antisemetic to question Israel’s legitimacy as a state. Her post went viral, and she was fired the day after she posted it. She returned to Denver soon after, and is now studying for her PhD.

Some Democrats raised Kiros’ previous comments about Israel as an area of serious concern, as well as her decision to campaign alongside podcaster Hasan Piker, who has made controversial statements about Israel. In an interview with 9News earlier this week, Kiros declined to call the firebombing attack in Boulder antisemetic.

When asked by NOTUS about the Boulder attack, Kiros said there was “no question” it was a “hate crime” and “a terrorist attack,” but that it was “not entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism — “it’s absolutely possible that that was a part of it as well, but I do think it’s important that we know exactly what the motivation was.”

She pointed to the ongoing legal case, saying it’s “important that we are careful about understanding whether this was an act that was motivated by antisemitism or anti-Zionism.”

She did say that antisemitism is rising across her state, while putting some of the blame on the Israeli government. “The reality is the actions of Israel right now and their conflation of Judaism with the actions of the Israeli state is putting so many innocent Jewish people at risk and putting them in danger.”

DeGette called Kiros’ views on Israel “really extreme.”

“I don’t agree with everything Israel has done, and I think we need to have extreme humanitarian aid in Gaza,” DeGette said. “But I also think we have to be very supportive of our Jewish brothers and sisters because a lot of this anger is being turned into antisemitism.”

Kiros’ position on Israel raised concerns for Kellie Rockey, a 54-year-old voter who volunteered at the city’s Juneteenth parade last weekend. Initially, she said she wanted to vote for Kiros because she had “fire in the belly.” But Rockey recently changed her mind because of Kiros’ “lack of nuance that she has shown regarding antisemitic stuff.”

“There is a way to be anti-Israel, anti-Zionist without being anti-Jew,” she said, “and she’s not walking that line, unfortunately.”

Kiros is getting some back-up from her own outside groups, including Justice Democrats and American Priorities PAC, which was formed to support pro-Palestinian candidates. But they’re being widely outspent by pro-DeGette groups.

“You’re seeing last-minute attempts by dark money super PACs to come in and spend millions,” said Usamah Andrabi, Justice Democrats’ communications director. “Voters are increasingly rejecting that on its face.”