Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who will represent Denver in Congress starting in January, says the incoming group of House Democrats will put forward their own demands to party leaders rather than going along with the party’s agenda.
Kiros, 29, who defeated longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in a June primary and won the general election on Nov. 3, told CNN’s Laura Coates she cares more about the agenda than who becomes the speaker. She said the agenda should reflect a populist drive to tax the rich and hold corrupt CEOs and billionaires to account.
The comments come amid Democrats’ preparations to take control of the House following their gains in the midterm elections, and as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the party’s leader, plans to become speaker. Kiros is among many candidates whom the Democratic Socialists of America have endorsed to join the House.
Coates started off by talking about Kiros’s focus on campaign money and asked if she would support Jeffries.
“You have been very vocal about the role of money in politics, the overuse of it, those who are beholden to corporate interests as well,” Coates said. “Tell me about what you’re looking for for Democratic leadership, because obviously people are wondering who will be the majority, the speaker of the House. Will it be Hakeem Jeffries, if it’s up to you?”
“You know, I’m much less concerned about the individual than I am concerned about the agenda,” Kiros said. “What I’ll say is that it has been disappointing how undemocratic this process has felt.”
“I primaried an incumbent,” she said. “I fiercely believe in the importance of competitive elections, and it feels like a lot of our class are just coming in and, you know, being told this is what the leadership is going to be.”
“Our responsibility now is to come in and say, fine, this is the agenda that we are being, that we were sent here to do,” Kiros said. “That’s the tradeoff.”
“It might be a so-called coronation, but you have demands,” Coates said.
“We have demands,” Kiros replied. “We have demands on behalf of the American people.”
“You know, this is a historic class,” she said. “We got elected in places that nobody was expecting to get elected in, but we all ran on a populist agenda, making sure that we are holding the rich accountable, taxing the rich, making sure that we are holding corrupt CEOs and billionaires accountable as well.”
“You know, this is something that resonated with the American people all across the country, and our agenda has to reflect that,” Kiros said.
Jeffries announced his bid for speaker on Nov. 4 in a letter to House Democrats, saying that House Democrats must bring about a sea change. If elected, he would be the first Black speaker of the House. Democratic aides told Reuters that no one is considered a threat to him.
House Democrats will pick their nominee in the upcoming private leadership elections in the coming weeks. The full House will elect a speaker when the new Congress begins on Jan. 3.
According to race calls by The Associated Press as of Nov. 7, Democrats had won 254 House seats to Republicans’ 162. NPR has said a broad Democratic majority could limit the influence of the party’s newly elected Democratic Socialists, who would wield more power in a narrowly divided chamber.
Six candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America won House seats on Nov. 3, NPR reported, citing AP race calls. They include Kiros and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York in a primary. The group, which is not a political party, will have its House membership increase fourfold from its two current members.
These winners ran in reliably Democratic districts, so their upsets were in the primaries, where candidates affiliated with the DSA defeated at least three incumbent House Democrats, Fox News reported. None of the new DSA members have pledged to support Jeffries, according to NPR.
Kiros has been tough on the issue before. In July, she told Axios she wouldn’t support “any Democrat for a leadership position” who accepts corporate PAC money, a criterion that applies to Jeffries. In October, she said she wants the next speaker to push Medicare for All, universal child care, pulling back aid to Israel, and ending the war in Iran, The Daily Signal reported.
Axios reported in late October that progressive candidates who won primaries with the support of groups such as Justice Democrats and the DSA (“the Bloc”) were considering asks they could make if Jeffries needs their support. Jeffries has said he has run as his party’s speaker candidate 20 times without losing a Democratic vote. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member, has said he supports Jeffries for speaker.
Republicans have criticized the DSA wins. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said after the election that the new Democratic majority will be “led by the most radical and extreme leftists in American history.”
Kiros, who migrated to Denver from Ethiopia as a baby, is a former lawyer and doctoral student. She was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 after she posted an online comment blaming big law firms, including her employer, for opposing campus protests over the war in Gaza.
She entered the race in 2025 against DeGette, who had represented the seat since 1997, the year Kiros was born. At around 10:30 p.m. on primary night, Kiros led DeGette 49% to 44%, with University of Colorado Regent Wanda James at about 7%, according to Colorado Newsline. Kiros won despite DeGette’s massive fundraising advantage and millions of dollars in outside spending, Axios reported.
In the general election, Kiros had around 78% of the vote at 9 p.m. on election night, leading Republican Christy Peterson at 14% and unaffiliated candidate Shimon Blau at 6%, according to KUNC. She will be the first Gen Z woman in Congress, per NPR, and the first Black woman to represent Colorado in Congress, per Axios.
Her platform included Medicare for All, universal child care, taxing the wealthy, reversing the Trump tax cuts, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and refusing all corporate PAC money, all listed on her campaign site.
“Organized people beat organized money every single time,” Kiros told supporters at a DSA watch party in Denver on election night.
