Biography
Melat Asfawosen Kiros was born in 1997 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a family of Tigrayan origin. Her parents immigrated to the United States when she was an infant, settling in Denver, Colorado, where she grew up in a working-class household. She earned her bachelor's degree from Washington College in 2018 and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 2022. She is currently a PhD student and also works as a barista.
Kiros came to political organizing through a combination of legal work and personal conviction. After writing an open letter in late 2023 expressing support for student protests against Israel's war in Gaza, she was fired from her corporate law job. That moment became a turning point. 'I looked into healthcare, I looked into childcare, I looked into housing, I looked into social justice, I looked into climate,' she said — and decided to run for Congress.
She announced her campaign in July 2025 to challenge 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado's 1st Congressional District, which covers Denver. Running as a democratic socialist with no prior elected office, she was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Justice Democrats, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, and the Sunrise Movement. She stunned the political world on June 30, 2026, defeating DeGette — Colorado's longest-serving member of Congress — by 6 percentage points, taking 49% of the vote to DeGette's 44%.
If elected in November in the safely blue Denver seat, Kiros will be one of the first Generation Z women ever elected to Congress. Her victory was part of a broader wave of democratic socialist primary wins in major cities in the 2026 cycle.
2026 House Campaign
Kiros launched her campaign in July 2025 as a long-shot challenger to Diana DeGette, who had held the seat since 1997. She built her campaign on grassroots organizing, social media outreach, and volunteer networks rather than corporate donations, and made an early statement at the Democratic Party's Denver assembly in March 2026, where she took 67% of the delegate vote to DeGette's 33%.
Bernie Sanders endorsed Kiros in June 2026, calling her 'exactly the kind of bold leader we need in Congress' and praising her willingness to 'stand up to corrupt special interests like AIPAC and Big Pharma.' Her win on June 30, 2026 was decisive — a 6-point victory that ended DeGette's 30-year congressional career.
Kiros now faces the Republican nominee in a general election in one of the most reliably Democratic House seats in Colorado. Her platform includes Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, federal rent control, a moratorium on data centers, free public college, and a complete arms embargo on Israel. She has been called 'poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress' by NPR.
In the press
- Colorado Sun
- NPR
- Colorado Newsline
- Colorado Springs Gazette
- Wikipedia