Justice Democrats, a national progressive group, on Thursday endorsed Melat Kiros, a lawyer and barista, in her campaign against Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado's 1st District.
Kiros received Justice Democrats' sixth endorsement against an incumbent this election cycle, highlighting the group's push for generational and ideological change in the Democratic Party. The push comes amid broader thirst for new leadership and younger elected officials among the party's rank-and-file voters.
"Voters in Denver, like across the country, are ready to turn the page on a Democratic Party that is failing to fight back against the Trump administration & corporate interests or deliver lower costs for everyday people. Melat is exactly the type of leadership we need right now — leadership rooted in her communities' lived realities that will never back down against the wealthiest or most well-connected interests," Justice Democrats Executive Director Alexandra Rojas said in a statement.
Kiros, 28, launched her campaign in July, vowing to tackle rising costs and fight back against President Donald Trump if she's elected. Her launch video featured clips of DeGette, 68, on CNN in the late 1990s, after she was first elected.
On Wednesday, Kiros told NBC News, "The No. 1 concern that I have is with affordability."
"Everyday working people are the backbone of this country, and we're watching people, particularly in my district, in the city of Denver, which is the fifth-least affordable city in the country, being priced out, and that's unacceptable," she added.
Kiros directly criticized DeGette for what she called "lip service" on the issue of rising costs, saying, "A lot of Democrats pay lip service to this, including DeGette herself, saying that they're fighting for affordability, saying that that's their priority, but we're not actually seeing them deliver on this issue."
In a statement to NBC News on Thursday, DeGette pushed back and disputed the notion that she's not doing enough to counter Trump.
"Out-of-state groups are attacking my progressive record and let’s be clear: they are dead wrong. While Trump and MAGA gut health care, strip rights, and sow fear, I’m fighting back," DeGette said.
DeGette added, "I’m working every day in Congress to protect reproductive freedom, to secure health care as a human right through the Medicare for All Act, and to build a country where families aren’t torn apart by masked ICE raids. We must defend our democracy against Donald Trump and work to solve our problems with dignity, justice, and a future grounded in compassion, not cruelty."
DeGette, the longest-serving member of the Colorado congressional delegation, has drawn several Democratic challengers in her Denver-area district, which leans heavily in favor of Democrats. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the district last year by 56 percentage points.
DeGette's challengers also include Wanda James, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents.
Kiros cited a sense of instability and "existential crises" as the reasons young people are calling for younger leaders in her party.
"I think a lot of people my age and my generation are watching as the generation before us has ultimately failed to deliver on a future that is affordable for us, where our climate is stable, where democracy is stable," she said.
Justice Democrats launched during the first Trump administration and has backed a number of successful anti-incumbent primary challengers who went on to win their elections, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.
Kiros mentioned Ocasio-Cortez and Lee multiple times as examples of elected Democrats who she does think are doing a good job, pointing to efforts to ban super PACs and stock trading by members of Congress.
"AOC and Summer Lee, I think those two have really done an incredible job of highlighting the cause for a lot of the failure to deliver for working people in the country," she said.
So far this year, Justice Democrats have also backed:
- State Rep. Justin Pearson in Tennessee, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen.
- Angela Gonzales-Torres, challenging Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez in California.
- Michigan state Rep. Donovan McKinney, challenging Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar.
- Democratic activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York.
- Former Rep. Cori Bush, challenging Rep. Wesley Bell in Missouri.
Justice Democrats backed Bush in 2018 when she first ran for Congress and lost, and it supported her again in 2020, when she went on to defeat an incumbent in the Democratic primary. In 2024, Bell challenged and defeated Bush in the Democratic primary, setting up this year's roles-reversed rematch.
Justice Democrats isn't the only group backing young Democratic primary challengers around the country heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Leaders We Deserve, a group founded by gun control activist David Hogg, has backed several candidates across the country who are running against incumbent Democrats, including McKinney, Pearson and Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee in Texas.
