Before primary races had even been called Tuesday in Colorado, Republicans launched their new political strategy in the state: Tie every Democrat to Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old democratic socialist who denied U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette a 16th term in Congress.
“From New York to Colorado, socialists and anti-American anarchists have fully taken over the Democrat Party,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a written statement, referencing democratic socialists’ earlier victories on the East Coast.
Gruters said Kiros and state Rep. Manny Rutinel, the Democratic nominee to flip Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District, “are just the latest full-blown crazies committed to destroying America” and “proof that there’s no room for moderates” in the Democratic Party.
It’s a tried and true line of political attack deployed by Democrats and Republicans alike across the country, especially in swing districts. Kiros is now for Republicans what Trump has long been for Democrats: an easy foil.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor, called Kiros’ win a “gift to Republicans.”
While Kiros is expected to cruise to victory in November in Denver’s deep-blue 1st Congressional District, her liberal politics may pose problems for Colorado Democrats like Rutinel running in the state’s tossup districts, where a large portion of the electorate is either more moderate or leans conservative.
Adam Frisch, a self-described conservative Democrat from Aspen, did his best to separate himself from the Democratic Party and its leaders during his 2022 bid against Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District, as well as another campaign he ran in the 3rd District in 2024.
At the time, that was President Joe Biden.
“If they can’t pick on the person, they’ll pick on the party,” said Frisch, who now works to help centrist Democrats get elected in tough districts.
Despite Frisch’s strategy, Boebert still found ways to tie Frisch and Biden together, like when Biden visited Pueblo and Frisch didn’t attend. She accused Frisch of being afraid of Biden’s poll numbers. (Boebert ultimately switched congressional districts, in no small part to avoid running against Frisch again.)
Kiros, in an interview Thursday after a Democratic Party unity event, said Democrats all have the same goals at the end of the day, like making Colorado more affordable and getting rid of corruption.
“We might have different ideas of how to get these things done,” she said. “I think the differences that are there, and the diversity of our thoughts and our ideas, are what our strength is.”
Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib had a similar message.
“The same Democratic Party that can nominate John Hickenlooper and Melat Kiros is a healthy, diverse and inclusive organization that’s ready to win and deliver results for working people,” he said, referring to Colorado’s far more moderate U.S. senator.
But there were indications at the event that some Democrats are worried.
Rutinel and Army veteran Jessica Killin, who is trying to become the first Democrat to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, were conspicuously absent. Their campaigns didn’t respond to questions from The Sun about why they missed the gathering, but a Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson said their teams told the party they had conflicts.
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, said that Kiros’ views are not representative of the Democratic Party as a whole and are certainly not representative of Democratic candidates running in swing districts.
“Her candidacy was a reflection of a very bright blue district,” she said.
That’s not stopping Republicans from trying to make the connection.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, the Republican representing the 8th District, said in an interview this week on a right-wing media network that “the socialists have taken over the Democrat party.”
“If they win, they will bring about the end of America as we know it,” he said in another post.
DeGette and her allies teed up some of the Republican messaging on the primary campaign trail.
During the Democratic primary in the 1st District, super PACs backing DeGette parroted messaging from the congresswoman’s campaign accusing Kiros of bringing an “extreme agenda” to Denver, including wanting to defund the police; withdraw the U.S. from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO; and abolish the U.S. Senate.
Kiros has never supported any of those positions. The claims were made by DeGette’s campaign based on the Democratic Socialists of America platform nationally and in Denver, but not anything that Kiros has ever said.
But some of Kiros’ actual stances are ones that some fellow Democrats chafe at: She supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, wants to make utilities public entities and believes that Israel should no longer be a Jewish state.
And she has already clashed with fellow Democrats.
Last month, during an interview with 9News, she refused to call the deadly firebombing attack last year on a Jewish community rally in Boulder antisemitic. That drew criticism from fellow progressives.
This week, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won the Democratic primary for governor, said he, too, took issue with Kiros’ refusal to call the attack antisemitic.
“If someone isn’t going to acknowledge that, I’m concerned about that,” Weiser, who is Jewish, said in an interview on 9News.
On Thursday, Kiros and Weiser stood on the same stage celebrating Democratic Party unity.