Incumbent politicians usually have the advantage in any re-election campaign because of name ID, fundraising connections, and experience in general. Challengers also have a benefit that incumbents do not: they have nothing to lose.
When you are playing with house money with no record to defend, you can say pretty much whatever you want when running against an incumbent. You can stake out difficult positions and make promises that may or may not be realistic. In an election cycle like 2026, this rhetorical freedom might end up being more important than the benefits of incumbency.
Everything changes once you win. Melat Kiros is learning this lesson in real time.
Kiros is the darling of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) who ran a strong campaign to defeat 30-year incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver. Now that Kiros has to think more about serving in Congress rather than just campaigning for the job, reality is starting to intervene. Some of her boldest statements are turning out to be much more, shall we say, “tractable” than before.
For example, here’s what Kiros said the day after the Primary Election, as reported by The Hill newspaper, on a subject that was a centerpiece of her campaign:
“We have to root out the corruption and get money out of our politics. … It’s about political will — and that means we have to vote out any of the incumbents that are standing in our way by taking that kind of corporate PAC money,” Kiros told Politico’s Will Steakin following her win.
When asked specifically about whether she would support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) if she successfully takes the seat in November, Kiros stressed that she will not support “anyone for leadership who takes corporate PAC money.”
“I’m dead serious about this issue,” she said. “We have to start setting a standard now.”
One week later, Kiros was changing her tune on that pledge. Kiros recently sat down for an extended interview with the always-great Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio, which included this exchange:
WARNER: Okay. If Hakeem Jeffries said, “Hey, vote for me and I’ll put you on the Energy and Commerce Committee” …
KIROS: I’d have to think about that. That’s an incredibly important committee where Medicare for All would get passed through. It’s one where most AI regulation is probably going to get passed through. Committee assignments is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last few weeks. Everybody wants to know what I want to be on.
WARNER: Well, and of course what you want to be on and what you get to be on, there can be a vast gap there in terms of where freshmen land.
KIROS: There is, for sure. And it’s one that, again, those conversations that I’m hoping to have with some local officials about what committees serve the best interests of the voters of this district.
WARNER: But you’d give that offer some thought just because of the nature of the committee.
KIROS: I would, yeah. I think I have a responsibility to.
House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries
We certainly don’t fault Kiros for taking a more strategic approach to how she plans to deal with Democratic leadership that will likely be in majority control after November, but it will be interesting to see how Kiros’s supporters adjust to a more pragmatic hero. While refusing to support other Democrats who accept PAC money is a good talking point for DSA members in a campaign environment, the reality is that it makes much less sense to draw a line in the sand with the person who will likely become the next Speaker of the House in Hakim Jeffries. Being a champion for a policy like “Medicare for All” requires you to be in the room when those discussions take place.
How this all fits with Kiros’s position as a DSA leader will also be fascinating to watch:
WARNER: This provides the perfect segue to a question I have for you about your role within Democratic Socialists of America. I gather from that answer that you see yourself as something of a leader now in that party in that group and perhaps a recruiter of candidates, or how do you see your role in DSA now? Because you’re a very prominent figure all of a sudden.
KIROS: Yeah. My mission has always been to build out this movement in a way that could actually combat the money and our politics and the corruption in our government.
WARNER: And in the Democratic Party?
KIROS: Yes. And in the Democratic Party. Because as somebody who is a proud Democrat, is proud of the things we’ve accomplished in the past, like the New Deal, like social security laws, fair labor laws, the Civil Rights Act, none of these things happened top down. It wasn’t the leadership that woke up one day and decided to do the right thing. The party was pushed. The government was pushed by people, everyday activists, organizers, dreamers who dared to say, this is not enough and we demand more.
WARNER: And you see that as the role of the DSA. What is your role in it? Is it recruiting candidates?
KIROS: My role is to represent the incredible people of this district. And I see DSA as an organizing partner, just like we have so many other organizing partners as well. But DSA I think is offering this vision for how we should be moving forward and how we organize our economy and our government.
Again, will DSA loyalists be cool with Kiros dialing back the rhetoric now that she is going to Congress? The left-wing insurgency we’ve seen in the last year has often been compared to the Republican Tea Party movement of the early 2010s, and for good reason. Many of the militant Tea Party Republicans who were elected to Congress had trouble keeping their jobs — and their support at home — when they had to attempt to govern. Former Sen. Cory Gardner was never able to transition from partisan bomb-thrower to actual lawmaker, which is a big reason why he has hammered by Democrat John Hickenlooper in his 2020 re-election campaign.
These shifts can also happen sooner. Groups like DSA and Working Families Party threw a fit in June over Democrat Manny Rutinel’s move to the center ahead of his Primary Election victory in CO-08. Rutinel is trying to do more than just win the Democratic nomination, but his moderating moves almost had supporters bashing a piñata in effigy (sorry). Many of these supporters would apparently rather that Rutinel lose a General Election than make policy compromises; that sort of “supporter” will always to be looking to jump ship.
Smart politicians and wise political movements understand that sometimes you have to decide between making a point and making a difference. We’re about to find out who can win this tug-of-war in Denver.
July 10, 2026 01:09 PM UTC
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