Ernest Luning at Colorado Politics reports on a pretty remarkable result out of Denver’s Democratic assembly process: 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette got walloped in a delegate preference poll by first-time candidate Melat Kiros. Kiros, a 28-year-old former corporate attorney, pulled 63 percent to DeGette’s 35 percent in the unofficial tally, which is the political equivalent of getting booed off your own stage in your own hometown.
Luning notes that both candidates still appear headed for the June 30 primary ballot in the deep-blue 1st Congressional District, so this is not a knockout punch just yet. But it is a flashing neon warning sign for DeGette, who has held this seat since 1997 and has spent years cruising through renomination without much heavy lifting. When a 15-term incumbent gets flattened by a first-time challenger at home, that is not background noise. That is the sound of the base getting restless.
What makes this even more telling is the direction of the unrest. Kiros’ message, as quoted in the piece, is not that Denver Democrats need to calm down or move toward the middle. It is that rents have doubled, health care costs are crushing families, and DeGette has spent too long taking money from corporate PACs while voters fall behind. In other words, Denver’s left flank is not asking for moderation. They are shopping for a fresher model of the same ideology, only with more attitude and less mileage.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old first-time candidate, beat Diana DeGette 63 percent to 35 percent in Denver’s delegate preference poll. That is not a nudge. That is a political cattle prod.
- DeGette has represented the 1st Congressional District since 1997 and has survived past primary challenges by wide margins. This time, the hometown crowd sent up a flare that said, “Ma’am, your lease may be up.”
- Kiros framed her win as a revolt against the status quo, blasting rising rents, crushing health care costs, and DeGette’s ties to corporate PACs. Apparently Denver progressives have decided the problem with the left is that it has not been left enough.
- DeGette’s camp responded by pointing to technical problems with the party’s software platform and questions about the voting process. Which is fair enough, but when you lose by nearly thirty points, it is hard to blame the printer jam.
- Republicans have not yet fielded a candidate in the district. That may be the most Colorado Republican detail in the whole article. Denver Democrats are busy staging an internal ideological knife fight, and the GOP still has not managed to put a body on the ballot.
My Bottom Line
Wow. Just wow.
This story is a perfect snapshot of where Denver politics is headed, and it is not toward the center. Diana DeGette is not exactly a card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. She is a long-serving Democrat from one of the safest Democratic districts in the state. And yet the activist class in Denver appears to be looking at her and thinking, “Nice try, grandma, but we would like our socialism with a little more edge.”
That ought to tell the rest of Colorado something. The issue in places like Denver is not whether the left has gone too far. It is that a big chunk of the Democratic base thinks it has not gone far enough. They do not want moderation. They do not want balance. They want younger, louder, more ideological, and more performative. Same basic worldview, just with a newer headshot and a hotter social media feed.
The truly maddening part for conservatives is that this should create an opening. When one side keeps sprinting left, common sense ought to have a market advantage. But that only works if the right can stop treating internal dysfunction like a cherished family heirloom. Colorado Republicans cannot keep watching stories like this unfold and then respond with another circular firing squad, another personality drama, or another failure to recruit credible candidates.
Because here is the bottom line. Denver is drifting further into a self-contained progressive echo chamber, and the people steering that ship seem determined to crank the wheel even harder. The only thing standing between Colorado and deeper blue absurdity should be a competent, serious, principled opposition. At the moment, that “should be” is doing a whole lot of work.
Source: Colorado Politics
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