Colorado Democrats hold primaries as left-wing challengers defeat incumbents and test party unity

Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Ousts 15-Term Rep. Diana DeGette In Colorado Primary

Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Ousts 15-Term Rep. Diana DeGette In Colorado Primary As we've been noting of late, the Democrats have a problem: socialists are on the move. The latest - in a striking upset, democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday's Democratic primary for Colorado's 1st Congressional District. The victory extends a recent winning streak for the party's left wing and hands Republicans fresh ammunition heading into the fall campaign. Democratic socialist Melat Kiros (L) ousted 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette in Tuesday's Democratic primary Kiros, a 29-year-old former attorney, defeated the 68-year-old incumbent who has represented the Denver-based seat since 1997. DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, had long been viewed as secure in the solidly Democratic district. Kiros's win, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Socialists of America, came just one week after the DSA notched several high-profile primary victories in New York City. The result is likely to intensify internal Democratic tensions. While party leaders sought to minimize last week's New York outcomes, Kiros's success in a Western swing state makes it harder to dismiss the pattern as a purely local phenomenon confined to deep-blue urban strongholds. According to Axios, Dems are freaking out.  Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) was a staunch progressive, not a moderate, these members are privately fuming. So why did she become a target of the left?     "One more case in the growing dynamic of performative politics," one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid analysis on the results, told Axios.     "Diana was an excellent representative with seniority — but the style of someone younger and more outspoken has become more attractive to that cohort of motivated urban left voters."     A senior House Democrat called the result a "wake-up call" for members of Congress Kiros drew scrutiny during the campaign for a letter she wrote criticizing the view that calls for the elimination of Israel constitute antisemitism. Despite those comments, she built a strong coalition among younger, college-educated voters who have moved into the district in recent years. With most votes counted, she held a roughly four-point lead when major outlets called the race. GOP strategists quickly framed the outcome as evidence that the party's left flank is expanding its influence beyond traditional strongholds, according to The Hill. A spokesperson for the House Republican campaign arm said the result showed "the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party is no longer confined to deep-blue strongholds," arguing it would complicate Democratic efforts to flip the House. Other Anti-Incumbent Signals In Colorado Voters delivered additional rebukes to establishment figures on Tuesday. In the Democratic primary for governor, state Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who had been considered the early frontrunner. Weiser, while a mainstream Democrat, ran an insurgent-style campaign that emphasized his record of suing the Trump administration 66 times and criticized Bennet for confirming some of President Trump's Cabinet nominees. He also portrayed the senator as too aligned with wealthy donors. Bennet will keep his Senate seat and faces re-election in 2028. In the U.S. Senate primary, Sen. John Hickenlooper successfully turned back a challenge from progressive state Sen. Julie Gonzales. General Election Landscape Takes Shape Tuesday's results also clarified several November matchups that could affect control of the House. Colorado's 1st District: Kiros is now the heavy favorite to hold the safely Democratic seat for her party. Colorado's 8th District: The contest remains one of the most competitive in the country. Vulnerable Republican Rep. Gabe Evans will face state Rep. Manny Rutinel, who won the Democratic primary. Cook Political Report rates the suburban Denver seat a toss-up. Colorado's 5th District: Army veteran Jessica Killin won the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Rep. Jeff Crank. The seat has trended left in recent presidential cycles, though it remains in Republican hands. Democrats currently need a net gain of three seats to retake the House majority. The Colorado results add to a growing body of evidence that primary voters in 2026 are rewarding candidates who position themselves as outsiders - whether on the left flank of the Democratic Party or as critics of Washington incumbents more broadly. Colorado's results come on the heels of last week's Democratic primaries in New York City - which turned into a referendum on the Democratic Party itself.  Three socialist-backed candidates, backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won their races. The Democratic establishment got slaughtered, and the man left holding the wreckage is House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Every candidate Jeffries backed went down. That alone would be a bad night. What made it worse was the scene at the victory party for socialist-backed winner Claire Valdez, where the crowd erupted in boos when Jeffries's image appeared on screen, then broke into a chant: "You're next," a clear sign that his leadership position won't protect him from being a target of the Democratic Socialists of America Party. Tyler Durden Wed, 07/01/2026 - 12:05

4 hours ago

The Left Wins in Colorado—and It’s Not Because of Gaza or Socialism

The primaries on Tuesday in Colorado weren’t a sweeping victory for the Democratic left like last week’s in New York, where three very progressive candidates won, knocking out two incumbent members of Congress along the way. But the defeats of Representative Diana DeGette and Senator Michael Bennet in his gubernatorial bid and the strong challenge to incumbent Senator John Hickenlooper are the latest signs of a shift happening across the country: It’s no longer enough for Democratic politicians to just vote the right way on key issues. The party base is looking for fighters and disrupters—and will cast aside solid politicians who they don’t think will aggressively battle Donald Trump, MAGA, and right-wing billionaires. Unlike New York, where there were three House candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and effectively running as a slate, Colorado’s primaries were more ideologically complicated. Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Senator Bernie Sanders, and other progressive leaders and groups both in Colorado and across the country, fairly easily defeated DeGette, who has represented the Denver area since 1997. Kiros will likely defeat the longtime incumbent by double digits, a result no one would have anticipated a few months ago. State Senator Julie Gonzales, who was not endorsed by the DSA but had the support of many progressive groups in the state, lost to Hickenlooper but received more than 45 percent of the vote, an unusually high number when facing an incumbent senator. Attorney General Phil Weiser won comfortably in the gubernatorial primary over Bennet, who had been considered the heavy front-runner until recently. Weiser isn’t much more liberal than Bennet but positioned himself as more anti-Trump. He hammered Bennet for his votes to confirm several of Trump’s executive branch nominees last year and won the backing of the state’s Indivisible chapter. It’s normal to have multiple candidates seeking an open governorship (incumbent Jared Polis is term-limited), so Weiser’s decision to take on Bennet wasn’t unusual or surprising. But House Democratic incumbents rarely face strong primary challenges, and Democratic senators almost never do. And it’s not as if Hickenlooper or DeGette are Joe Manchin–style centrists. They strongly backed Joe Biden’s agenda and have opposed most of Trump’s. DeGette is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. While neither of them has been a leading critic of Israel, they haven’t been vocally pro-Israel like Representative Dan Goldman, who was defeated last week in New York. So why did DeGette and Hickenlooper get primary challengers, and why were those challenges so popular with voters? How did a man (Bennet) who has voted against nearly all of Trump’s proposals in Washington lose a contest over who would be the most anti-Trump? For the same reasons Mamdani won the Democratic primary in New York last year, Graham Platner won in Maine earlier this year, Abdul El-Sayed has surged in Michigan Senate polls, and other progressive candidates are gaining ground and winning around the country. Democratic voters are mad at party leaders for not defeating Trump in 2024 and then last year having to be coaxed by the base into aggressively opposing him. They are also curious if newer politicians will do a better job than those from the party establishment in fighting MAGA. Those two factors provide an opening for challenges to incumbents and front-runners, even those with fairly liberal voting records.“A big difference in this race is, what’s your approach to the Trump administration? Are you committed to fighting back, standing for our rights? Or, as Sen. Bennet has said, do you want to support some of these Trump administration Cabinet picks because you think maybe it’ll get you a better relationship?” Weiser told Deseret News in a preelection interview. I know there’s a lot of talk about how Democratic voters increasingly like socialism and hate the Israeli government. The left-wing candidates have something of a playbook: Call for Medicare for All and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement; declare what Israel has done in Gaza a genocide; bash the outsize role of billionaires and corporations in American politics. But these primaries are not simply ideological referendums. Many insurgent candidates don’t identify themselves as socialists or even progressives. The Denver DSA chapter is nowhere near as organized and powerful as the one in New York City. The Gaza war isn’t a huge issue in some races that upstarts are winning, such as the Maine primary. I suspect that Kiros (and New York’s Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier) won many voters who aren’t die-hard democratic socialists but rather are traditional Democrats who want to see if a fresh face in Washington might be more effective than the kind of people they’ve been sending to Congress for a long time. And politicians like Hickenlooper, DeGette, and New York’s Adriano Espaillat are vulnerable both because they have been in office for a long time and because they haven’t been fighting the right in high-profile ways like Sanders or Senator Elizabeth Warren.If you were trying to cast for traditional liberals who vote the right way on most issues but are entirely forgettable and rarely lead on progressive causes, it would be hard to choose a better trio than DeGette, Bennet, and Hickenlooper. In writing this article, I struggled to recall anything particularly good or bad that any of them had done on Capitol Hill. Do you remember that Bennet ran for president in 2020? I had forgotten. My guess is that many liberals in very blue Denver feel they can have a representative like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not just a progressive but a prominent, fiery one. In the run-up to the primary, DeGette emphasized her support for Medicare for All and abolishing ICE. But she hasn’t been a high-profile advocate of those ideas—or really anything else. “A scandal-free and reliably Democratic-voting incumbent losing in her primary basically for being too ‘establishment’ and not being strident enough against Republicans would strike me as an important moment, suggesting that what happened in New York last week is a national phenomenon,” University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket wrote in his Substack newsletter on the eve of the election. The boring normalness of Bennet, DeGette, and Hickenlooper (and the lack of Mamdani-like progressive presence) is why these primaries were so important. They are more representative of how the Democratic Party is changing than New York’s races last week. The Democratic base is angry. Democratic politicians can channel that anger against Trump—or it will be channeled against them.

7 hours ago

Today's Colorado Primaries Could Impact The Midterm Elections Nationwide

Today's Colorado Primaries Could Impact The Midterm Elections Nationwide Colorado Democrats vote Tuesday in primaries that could hand Republicans their most useful campaign weapon of the 2026 midterms: proof that the socialist wave crashing through New York City was never just a New York problem. An election worker sorts ballots for the US midterm election in Grand Junction, Colorado, on November 8, 2022. [File: Jason Connolly/AFP] Three weeks ago, the Democratic Socialists of America notched a trio of wins in New York City that sent establishment Democrats into a panic. Darializa Avila Chevalier knocked off Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the 13th District on a platform that included shutting down prisons, eliminating ICE, erasing the southern border, and opposing the deportation of illegal immigrants regardless of criminal record. Claire Valdez took the 7th District running on citizenship and voting rights for people who entered the country illegally, taxpayer-funded transgender medical treatment, and the elimination of private health insurance. Brad Lander won in the 10th District by nearly 30 points, defeating Rep. Dan Goldman, one of the most prominent anti-Trump voices in the caucus and the man who led the push to impeach the president. Colorado now gets to answer the question everyone in Washington has been asking since New York's results came in: was that a fluke confined to one deep-blue city, or the opening act of something bigger? Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Diana DeGette, two of the biggest names in Colorado Democratic politics, both face primary challenges that party insiders are taking far more seriously than they expected to a month ago. CNN's Harry Enten warned Democrats about the implications last week after the New York primaries. "What is true in New York City in a Democratic primary ain't necessarily true nationwide with the general electorate," Enten said last week. The Democratic Socialists of America have a net favorable rating of +17 among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, according to Enten's data, but are 27 points underwater with the electorate as a whole. That 44-point canyon between the party's base and everyone else is precisely the gap Republicans intend to exploit. "Socialism has become increasingly popular among Democrats, but it is a much tougher sell in the rest of the electorate," Enten said. Favorable views of socialism among Democrats climbed from 50% in 2010 to 66% today. Among everyone else, the number has barely moved, sitting at 30% now versus 29% sixteen years ago. Polls show socialism is on the rise in the Democrat party but still highly unpopular amongst the overwhelmingly majority of Americans. CNN: “Socialism has become increasingly popular among Democrats, but it is a much tougher sell in the rest of the electorate." pic.twitter.com/2vysympwRW — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 25, 2026 Bennet abandoned his Senate seat to run for governor and now finds himself locked in a tighter-than-expected race against Attorney General Phil Weiser. A poll from the left-leaning firm PPP also showed Bennet trailing Weiser outside the margin of error, and two Democratic strategists familiar with the campaign said internal numbers track the same direction. "There may be only a slight Bennet advantage at this point," said a Democratic strategist close to the race, granted anonymity to speak candidly, who described private polling as "all over the place." Weiser, despite having eight years' experience running the attorney general's office, has somehow managed to cast himself as the outsider, branding Bennet a creature of Washington. Strategists say the message is sticking with primary voters who want nothing to do with anyone who smells like the establishment this cycle. DeGette's situation looks worse. After serving three decades in the House, she faces democratic socialist Melat Kiros. Internal polling has tightened to within the margin of error, and donors who dismissed the threat for weeks are suddenly paying attention. "It's not looking great," said one Colorado Democratic strategist familiar with DeGette's numbers. "It's very tough when you're fighting against a wave." DeGette rolled out a last-minute endorsement video from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. This move backfired with some progressives, given that Kiros already has Sen. Bernie Sanders in her corner. Sen. John Hickenlooper is fending off his own challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, with a private survey showing a dead heat in Denver even as a late-May public poll had Hickenlooper ahead 41% to 34% amid heavy undecideds. National DSA chapters have run phone banks for Kiros nearly daily, and Denver organizers expect close to 100,000 doors knocked by the time polls close. "There's a lot of anti-establishment momentum because voters are so angry," Doug Friednash, a longtime Colorado Democratic strategist, said. "They want to take it out on someone. They want fighters." Denver isn't New York, and Democrats note that the city's DSA infrastructure remains smaller, and that DeGette's name recognition runs deeper than Espaillat's ever did. But Denver has also grown younger and more restless, and that combination worries establishment Democrats. Republicans are watching with open delight. "That's what the left is putting out. It's these radical leftists that are being elected. They're being inspired by Mamdani, AOC, Bernie Sanders," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told Newsmax, adding that the trend hands the GOP favorable matchups in competitive districts nationwide. "The people are going to reject this at the polls," Gruters said, betting that a party drifting this far left has wandered clean off the map most American voters still occupy. If Colorado follows New York's lead, Democrats won't just be arguing about ideology inside their own party, they'll be handing Republicans a ready-made message for the 2026 midterms that the Democratic Party as a whole has become too radical for mainstream America. Tyler Durden Tue, 06/30/2026 - 18:50

22 hours ago