Insurgent progressives and veteran incumbents compete for Colorado Democrats' votes

By — Jesse Bedayn, Associated Press Jesse Bedayn, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/insurgent-progressives-and-veteran-incumbents-compete-for-colorado-democrats-votes Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Insurgent progressives and veteran incumbents compete for Colorado Democrats' votes Politics Jun 30, 2026 1:37 PM EDT Colorado's Democratic primaries on Tuesday will help answer a question the party has increasingly faced nationally: Are voters gravitating toward a younger, more progressive generation of leaders or sticking with established veterans? LIVE RESULTS: Colorado midterm primaries That choice is starkly reflected in the fight to represent the state's 1st Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette has been in office for as long as her challenger, a 29-year-old democratic socialist named Melat Kiros, has been alive. Likewise in the U.S. Senate race, Sen. John Hickenlooper has spent nearly three times as many years in public office as his challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who fashions herself as an "insurgent progressive." And a similar, if smaller, divide separates the two Democrats competing for the U.S. House in the state's lone swing district, a seat that will be one of the keys to controlling the chamber in President Donald Trump's final two years in office. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. In the Democratic primary for governor, however, the opposite is the case: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet have struggled to meaningfully distinguish their agendas. Instead, the two Democrats have accused each other of pulling punches against Trump. Democratic socialists have another shot in Denver DeGette has comfortably controlled her House seat in Denver for nearly 30 years, then came Melat Kiros. In a March Democratic assembly, a process to decide which candidates get on the primary ballot, DeGette barely qualified as Kiros, a first-time candidate, blew past her with more than double the votes. WATCH: Progressive victories signal mood of some Democratic voters ahead of midterms While the assembly process is far from determinative of who will win Tuesday, it was a jolt for the Democratic establishment and DeGette, who's been a progressive lawmaker herself. Then, in New York last week, two democratic socialists and a progressive beat out establishment-backed candidates — two of whom were incumbents — in Democratic primaries for U.S. House, energizing a movement that's just finding some political purchase. Similar to the New York races, Kiros has the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders, while DeGette is backed by Colorado's established Democratic House delegation. A victory by Kiros in Colorado, while far from guaranteed, would work toward cementing the nascent but clear uprising of democratic socialist candida