(July 1, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
The wave of defeats for incumbent Democrats facing primary challenges from the anti-Israel left continued on Tuesday as Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer and democratic socialist, unseated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) in the Democratic primary election in Colorado.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press called the race about three hours after polls closed in Colorado\u2019s 1st Congressional District, which includes most of Denver.<\/p>\n
At press time, Kiros won 49.3% of votes to DeGette\u2019s 43.5% with 84% of votes counted.<\/p>\n
Like the trio of candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won Democratic primaries in New York<\/a> last week, Kiros made her opposition to Israel, which she accuses of committing \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza and \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d in Lebanon, a defining feature of her candidacy.<\/p>\n As with the Democratic incumbents who lost in two of those races in New York, DeGette, who was first elected in 1996, was on the Democratic left as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, but was outflanked by a vehement critic of the Jewish state backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to the United States with her parents as an infant, entered into politics after she was fired from her role as an associate at the law firm Sidley Austin when she refused to take down an open letter she wrote on Nov. 7, 2023, criticizing the firm\u2019s view that calling for Israel\u2019s destruction was a form of Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n \u201cBy conflating \u2018calls for the elimination of the Israeli state\u2019 with antisemitism, you delegitimize any solution that forces Israel to reckon with its colonial role in Palestine, including one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike\u2014one state, under the historic Palestine,\u201d she wrote<\/a> in a blog post.<\/p>\n