Add Colorado to the list of headaches piling up for Donald Trump and Israel's staunchest backers in Washington. Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, is projected to win her Democratic primary in Colorado's 1st Congressional District, unseating Rep. Diana DeGette, who has held the seat since 1997, according to Haaretz.
The result adds Kiros to a fast-growing bloc of progressive candidates — including recent winners in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas — who campaigned explicitly on overhauling U.S. support for Israel, Haaretz reported. Given the district's heavily Democratic lean, Kiros is considered a near-lock to win the November general election, which would make her the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress.
Kiros's platform calls for a total arms embargo on Israel, including defensive weapons, and she has described the October 7 attacks as "the inevitable consequence of apartheid, of decades of occupation," remarks she made during a livestream with commentator Hasan Piker, Haaretz noted. She first drew national attention after publishing a Medium post criticizing law firms — including her own former employer — for condemning campus protests over the Gaza war; she was fired and later worked as a barista while pursuing graduate studies, per the outlet's reporting.
In her victory speech, Kiros vowed her campaign would not "wait to reject corporate PACs like AIPAC" and would push to "end the genocide in Palestine," Haaretz reported. Progressive groups quickly celebrated the win: Justice Democrats' Alexandra Rojas said Kiros "built a movement" that outlasted a heavily funded incumbent, while the pro-Palestinian IMEU Policy Project said her victory would "ring in our nation's capital" alongside similar upsets elsewhere, according to Haaretz.
Not everyone is celebrating. Denver's Rabbi Rachel Kobrin wrote that Kiros has not shown "the curiosity, humility, and empathy necessary" to represent the Jewish community, pointing to Kiros's comments questioning the motives behind last year's Boulder attack on a pro-Israel solidarity march, Haaretz reported.
For Trump, whose administration has staked significant political capital on unconditional military backing for Israel, Kiros's win is another sign that the Democratic base — and soon its congressional ranks — is shifting further from that consensus, with more primary contests still to come this cycle.
Photo: Haaretz