Three progressive leaders in Colorado are criticizing democratic socialist Melat Kiros, who is running to represent the 1st Congressional District in Denver, for refusing days before the primary election to call the deadly firebombing attack last year on a Jewish community rally in Boulder antisemitic.
One of the leaders is a state representative who has endorsed Kiros.
Kiros’ comments and the criticism come as the 29-year-old first-time political candidate appears to be on the cusp of unseating Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette amid a wave of discontent with Democratic incumbents.
“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros said in a recent interview with 9News. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed. I don’t even know what the people that were at that protest believed, too. In fact, most of them were just there to ask that the people who were kidnapped during Oct. 7 be returned home to their families.”
Kiros, whose campaign to unseat DeGette is rooted in criticism of Israel, was referencing Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The demonstrators, who were predominantly Jewish, were targeted in Boulder on June 1, 2025, while participating in their weekly gathering to raise awareness of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during that attack. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of carrying out the assault, yelled “Free Palestine!” as he used a makeshift flamethrower and hurled homemade bombs at the group.
Karen Diamond, 82, died from injuries she suffered in the attack.
State Sen. Julie Gonzales, state Rep. Yara Zokaie and David Seligman, a candidate for attorney general, said Thursday when contacted by The Colorado Sun that Kiros’ answer was wrong. The three progressive Democratic leaders, two of whom are running for statewide positions this year, said the attack was an act of antisemitism.
“I was very disappointed in her answer to that question,” said Zokaie, a Fort Collins Democrat who has endorsed Kiros. “The answer is obvious that the attack on Jewish people in Boulder was an antisemitic attack and a horrific act of violence that all leaders should condemn.”
Gonzales, a Denver Democrat running for U.S. Senate, said Kiros missed an opportunity for community healing.
“A person is dead. A family is shattered — multiple families are shattered. And a community is devastated,” Gonzales, who has not endorsed Kiros, told The Sun. “To respond in a manner that says ‘well, I don’t know what was in the perpetrator’s heart’ I think missed a moment and an opportunity to talk about what it takes to heal in the midst of just exceptional pain and violence. I would have answered differently.”
Seligman, who is Jewish, said the attack was clearly antisemitic.
“I think it was wrong of her to answer the question that way,” said Seligman, who has not endorsed anyone in the 1st District primary. “I agree with Melat on many things — and also it was wrong of her to answer the question that way.”
Kiros’ refusal to call the attack antisemitic is the latest of her comments to draw scrutiny from Colorado’s Jewish community as she tries to dislodge DeGette, been in Congress for 30 years. (A third Democrat, University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, is running in the 1st District Democratic primary, but is expected to come in third to DeGette and Kiros.)
Kiros, who emigrated to the United States from Ethiopia before she was a year old, moved back to Colorado after losing her job as a lawyer at a prominent law firm after writing an open letter criticizing the claim that calling for the elimination of Israel is antisemitic.
Earlier this year, in an interview with the liberal podcaster Hasan Piker, Kiros said Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which left about 1,200 mostly civilians dead, was an “inevitable consequence” of Israel’s actions. (She later clarified that she didn’t mean to imply it was justified.)
In May, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado released an open letter accusing Kiros of reinforcing “many of the same reductive and dehumanizing dynamics that are making many Jews feel increasingly unsafe and alienated.”
DeGette’s campaign sent out a fundraising email on Friday highlighting the criticism from Seligman, Zokaie and Gonzales, which was first reported in The Sun’s political newsletter, The Unaffiliated. The missive called Kiros’ refusal to call the Boulder attack an act of antisemitism “one more reason the people of our district can’t trust her.”
“I am not pulling my endorsement”
Kiros doubled down and expanded on her remarks in an interview with NOTUS this week, saying that while there is “no question” the Boulder assault was a “hate crime” and “a terrorist attack.” But she said it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
“It’s absolutely possible that that was a part of it as well, but I do think it’s important that we know exactly what the motivation was,” she told the news outlet.
In a written statement to The Sun on Friday, Kiros said it’s impossible to overstate the tragedy and loss caused by the attack.
“I will do everything in my power to stop an attack like this from happening again,” she said. “Protecting Jewish people in Denver, and across this country, isn’t negotiable. I don’t want anyone — not a Jewish grandmother in Boulder, not an immigrant family, not a Muslim neighbor — to feel unsafe in a city that’s only this vibrant because of how diverse it is.”
Zokaie said she has spoken with Kiros about how she responded to the question and feels confident the 29-year-old will handle similar questions better going forward.
“I am not pulling my endorsement because we need to have a fighter in Washington who is going to deliver Medicare for All, unions for all, fair wages and safe jobs, no more wars, and taxing the rich,” she said. “Those are things I am passionate about, that Melat has made the central point of her campaign.”
Gonzales said she’s disappointed that Kiros’ comments have been used as a political wedge. She cited a social media post from the Colorado Jewish Action Alliance that highlighted comments from a handful of Democrats calling the Boulder attack antisemitic, including her opponent, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, but not others.
“I wish that the Colorado Jewish Action Alliance had actually included a truly inclusive list of people who had called this attack in Boulder antisemitic,” she said. “I think a broad spectrum of leaders have been incredibly clear, and I think that COJAA’s statement missed an opportunity to demonstrate unity.”
Seligman, a consumer and workers rights attorney, said the Boulder attack left him personally rattled. When he went to synagogue the night of the assault, he was scared.
“That was a horrible feeling,” he said. “No one should feel scared to walk into their mosque, their church, their synagogue.”
He said there is a lot of valid criticism of Israel from the progressive left.
“Criticism of Israel is not the same as antisemitism,” he said. “But I also see how antisemitism manifests through criticism of Israel.”
Seligman said just this week he was on the phone with a man whose support he was trying to secure in the attorney general’s race. The man said he needed proof that Seligman wasn’t backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
“He said ‘because of your last name, I need proof,’” Seligman said.
What Kiros’ supporters say
On Friday evening, Kiros and a group of about 30 supporters gathered under the shade of trees near a playground in Huston Lake Park in Denver’s Athmar Park neighborhood, a largely Latino community of modest ranch houses, before fanning out to knock on doors and urge people who haven’t voted yet to cast their ballots for Kiros. They were upbeat and optimistic.
“We’re going to win,” Rachel Oliver, Kiros’ field and organizing director, said, using an expletive for emphasis. Her words were met with applause.
Genevieve Bassett, who was among the door knockers, didn’t object to Kiros’ comments to 9News and doesn’t believe the Boulder attack was antisemitic. She thinks Soliman was motivated by anger over the actions of the Israeli government, not Jewish people.
“Antisemitism is not the same as being critical of Israel,” said Bassett, a former social studies teacher.
When he entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder and dozens of other state charges in May, Soliman apologized for his actions, which he said he would not go back and repeat. He rejected the idea that he hated Jewish people and said instead that he was against Zionism, calling it an “enemy.”
“End Zionism before it ends you,” Soliman, speaking in Arabic through an interpreter, said in court in Boulder.
The Jewish community has maintained that the attack was antisemitic, whether it was rooted in opposition to Zionism or not, because it was directed at a group of mainly Jews.
Bassett’s canvassing partner, fellow former teacher Rhiannon Wenning, said people can be against a country’s government and its actions without being against the people who live there. She said she would hope that people in other countries wouldn’t judge her based on the actions of the U.S. government.
She likes Kiros’ support for policies including universal child and elder care as well as affordable housing and thinks she can deliver on them. “I think she has the fire to do it,” Wenning said.
The primary election is Tuesday. Ballots must be turned in by 7 p.m. that day to be counted.