March 24, 2026 01:43 PM UTC

The Trouble With Melat Kiros

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• by: Colorado Pols

A week ago at the CD-1 Democratic assembly in Denver, longtime Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette took a surprising second place to a previously unknown longshot candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) splinter group, 28-year-old law grad Melat Kiros. Anyone who has played in Colorado politics knows that party assembly results are in no way predictive of the results of the actual primary election, serving mostly to determine the order in which candidates appear on the primary ballot. Nonetheless, Kiros’ out-organizing of DeGette on the floor of the assembly almost turned into a rude shock for the “Dean of the Colorado delegation” after DeGette barely held on to the 30% necessary to make the primary ballot at all. A significant factor in this surprise showing appears to have been the pullout of U.S. Senate frontrunner John Hickenlooper from the assembly process having turned in petitions to make the ballot, skewing representation among delegates toward a more radical set.

Kiros’ strong showing among dedicated Denver Democrats has been the subject of plenty of discussion over the past week. But this morning, as 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark noted and we’re compelled to also for the record, we got a preview of Kiros’ problematic side:

What Kiros posted is an ad from a PAC called Progressive Victory, run by longtime progressive activist Sam Dryzmala, announcing an upcoming event–since the group doesn’t currently have Kiros on their endorsement list, we assume this event will include endorsing her. Some indication of the group’s seriousness could be derived from their endorsement of Jon Stewart for President, which…does not seem to be in jest? As you can see, the ad Kiros posted accuses Democrats the organization doesn’t like of “fellating Israel,” while failing to “fight fascism” and “stop wars” on account of them “sucking shit.”

There will be a segment of Democratic voters who are energized by this vulgar message, and will vociferously defend Kiros’ right to endorse this PAC’s message–just like she’ll welcome their likely endorsement of her campaign in a few days. But while this message might resonate with the small percentage of activist Democratic primary voters who showed up to assembly, that is not the whole electorate Kiros needs to win over in the June 30th primary. In Colorado, unaffiliated voters are allowed to participate in either party’s primary elections. And while CD-1 is the state’s safest Democratic district, it is also home to the largest concentration of Jewish households in the Denver area, with over 50,000 households.

And they vote.

DSA has earned the nickname “RMGO of the left” in recent years due to their valuation of ideological stridency over electability and competency–misplaced values that have resulted in problematic candidates, who when they win became divisive, single-term lawmakers. A bubble mentality develops within these campaigns that loses sight of the diversity of voters they are running to represent, and results in non-mainstream positions that alienate voters these candidates forgot they needed.

That could be what we’re seeing play out right now in CD-1.