In her 16th campaign for Congress, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is making a straightforward pitch: If Denver voters send her back to Washington, D.C., she’ll do more with her seat as a seasoned lawmaker than a newcomer can.
If Democrats regain control of the House this fall, DeGette could lead . She says she would have the chance to bring a “Medicare For All” bill — one of the Democrats’ white whale policies — to a vote. She also vows to use that position to make strides toward banning government restrictions on abortion access.
But her opponents in the June 30 primary, lawyer Melat Kiros and University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, say itap too little, too late.
“She’s not really done anything effectively in the last 10 years,” said Kiros, also a barista who’s pursuing a doctorate in public policy.
“We don’t have leadership in Congressional District 1,” said James, who is also a marijuana entrepreneur. “Seniority, when you have done nothing and not been effective, is not good.”
But DeGette is fiercely defending her record, saying her opponents don’t understand what the job actually takes and that she’s accomplished plenty in her three decades in Congress.
“I’ve never seen anybody pass a piece of legislation to lower costs through ‘disruption,’ ” she said in an interview with The Denver Post, referring to her opponents’ strategies.
The Democratic primary in dark-blue Denver for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. The three-way race heated up earlier this year when Kiros soundly defeated DeGette in the Democrats’ Denver County assembly. Though the party assembly process isn’t typically representative of the people voting in the full primary election — in which Democrats as well as unaffiliated voters can participate — the event raised eyebrows among political observers.
It was the first time DeGette, 68, had lost a county assembly vote since she was initially elected in 1996.
“I think she has lost some contact with her constituents based on what you saw at the county assembly,” said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who has endorsed James. “Itap just time for a change.”
DeGette went on to narrowly earn her place on the ballot in late March at the 1st Congressional District party assembly, just clearing the eligibility threshold while Kiros, 29, won top billing. James, 62, landed on the ballot through a petition process.
Whoever wins the nomination will become the favorite in the November midterm against other general election candidates, including presumptive Republican nominee Christy Peterson.
If DeGette loses, the new representative would enter Congress as a freshman lawmaker. Karen Middleton, the president of the Cobalt Abortion Fund, an abortion-rights advocacy group based in Colorado, said that could be a problem during a critical moment in healthcare policy.
“Every time you turn over a member of Congress, you lose seniority, you lose committee assignments, you lose leadership,” she said. Cobalt hasn’t endorsed any of the three primary candidates.
A look at DeGette’s accomplishments
One of the main criticisms lobbed at DeGette in the primary campaign so far has focused on the .
During her time in Congress, DeGette has been the primary sponsor of 205 bills. Seven of them either became law or were incorporated into other bills that later became law, according to .
But focusing on that figure alone shows a fundamental misunderstanding of civics, said James Owens, a spokesman for DeGette’s campaign. Members of Congress do far more work than just introducing bills, he pointed out. They secure funding for projects in their districts, serve on committees, provide services to constituents, bring amendments, and work behind the scenes to build coalitions and shape policies.
Lawmakers can also find ways to weave their policies into other bills that may not bear their names.
“The effectiveness of a legislator is in their ability to get policy passed. And she’s been able to do that through all these different mechanisms, and those various avenues aren’t captured by a simple Google search,” Owens said. “Folks in Denver don’t care if your name is on the bill or if you were pushing to get it included in another bill, they just want the legislation to pass.”
Owens said by his count, DeGette has had a major role in passing more than 40 pieces of legislation for things like , tightening , allowing the Food and Drug Administration to , and funding for projects in the district. Her team says she also played a role in shaping parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
DeGette was an architect of the 21st Century Cures Act, . That’s another bill that doesn’t include her name because a Senate version of the legislation, which was designed to accelerate biomedical research, is what eventually passed, Owens said.
DeGette says she’s also been instrumental in educating fellow members of Congress and building coalitions on complex issues like abortion access. She’s been one of two chairs of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus since 2005.
“The next day after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, I called (then-Speaker) Nancy Pelosi on her cell phone … and I said, ‘Nancy, we need to put the Women’s Health Protection Act on the floor next week — and I will guarantee you I have the votes.’ ”
The House later passed that bill, but ultimately it failed in the Senate. DeGette said she has begun working on a plan to bring that legislation back if Democrats regain the House majority.
“I’m sure both of my primary opponents are pro-choice,” she said. “… But if you have a brand new person coming in saying, ‘Put my bill on a very important topic on the floor next week,’ they’re not going to have any ability to do that.”
DeGette is one of 45 members of the Democratic caucus on the litigation task force, which files legal motions and amicus briefs to support and challenge certain efforts in the courts. Earlier this month, to the U.S. Supreme Court that encouraged the justices to protect access to the abortion medication mifepristone.
DeGette has been the prime sponsor on eight unsuccessful bills related to stem cell research but was able to work with Obama on his executive order to .
Despite those actions, the a joint project from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia that analyzes items moving through Congress, ranked DeGette as below average in effectiveness in eight of 14 terms analyzed.
The center rated five of her terms as average. Only one term, her first, was rated as above average.
The group considers how skilled members of Congress are at moving their agenda items forward. It has ranked U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, as one of the most effective lawmakers in the House. Neguse, a Lafayette resident, is the House’s assistant Democratic leader.
But DeGette’s team says rankings like that lack context and don’t take into account all legislative accomplishments.
For instance, DeGette in 2019. to be one of the nine impeachment managers for Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial in the Senate.
Promises for her next two years
If her fellow Democrats regain the majority, DeGette believes that, as the current ranking Democratic member of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s , she would become chair of that subcommittee.
Then, she would be able to decide which bills come before it. She would set the agenda, which would allow her to bring legislation implementing Medicare for All to the committee. For it to be successful from there, she said, she would lean on her connections to build a support group.
“Itap having the vision and the ability to write the legislation, and then to push the legislation through and having the contacts to make that happen,” she said. “Legislative politics is a team sport, so you have to be able to be the captain of the team.”
Both James and Kiros are also supporters of Medicare For All, a proposal that can vary in details but typically means single-payer health insurance coverage for all Americans in a program run by the government.
DeGette said her hope is for Democrats to use the next two years to regain power on the national stage.
If the party wins a majority in the House or Senate in the midterms, she said that will allow Democrats to begin developing major policies that they can enact if they then win the presidency in 2028.
“I actually see the next two years as a huge opportunity,” she said.
DeGette has defeated primary challengers before, but this time her opponents have lined up long endorsement rosters. Kiros and local elected officials, including Reps. Javier Mabrey and Denver City Councilwoman Sarah Parady. James counts Webb and his wife, Wilma, as well as Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and Interior secretary, along with .
Both challengers also have fundraising in the six figures, with Kiros reporting about $375,000 in contributions through March 31 and James reporting about $234,000.
But DeGette has more than held her own, reporting contributions approaching $1 million, including heavy support from political action committees. And she from a litany of labor unions, abortion-rights groups and other organizations on her website.
Kiros and James offer something new
If Kiros is able to continue her momentum from the assembly process and win the primary, she would join a wave of young Democrats nationwide who are seeking to oust longstanding political figures.
Kiros, a Democratic socialist, sees herself aligning with members of Congress like U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.
She said that after Democrats lost the 2024 presidential and many congressional elections, she believes the party needs more competitive primaries.
“We need to make sure that we’re sending the best of the best to the general. And particularly looking at Democrats that have been there for decades — and so I looked at the congresswoman,” she said, referring to DeGette. “There’s nothing in her record to point to that shows that she’s fighting for working people right now in a way thatap meaningful and tangible.”
DeGette responded to criticism that she has been in office for too long during her interview with The Post.
“I think there are people in Congress who’ve been there too long. But I think the voters of the 1st Congressional District know me, and they know that I’m a fighter for their values, and you need both,” she said. “You need people who have the experience and the leadership roles to know when the time is right to get these things done, and thatap where I’m at.”
While Kiros is aligned with some of DeGette’s values, she has distinguished herself with her views on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. While DeGette has focused her comments on the need for humanitarian aid, Kiros has more directly criticized Israel and questioned its legitimacy as a state.
She said in a recent interview that she wouldn’t support providing offensive or defensive weapons to the country.
James, a Navy veteran and the owner of the cannabis company Simply Pure, said that if she was elected, she would do a better job of using the bully pulpit than DeGette does.
“I’ve lived here now for 20 years, and I don’t think that I have ever seen my congresswoman being interviewed on any television show,” she said. “I don’t believe I have ever seen my congresswoman stepping out and holding Congress or the other party to task anywhere.”
DeGette has taken a somewhat lower-profile approach to her position than some of her colleagues. She is less active on social media and appears at public events less often than some of her colleagues in Colorado’s congressional delegation.
She was absent, for instance, during a recent news conference in Denver with Mayor Mike Johnston and Democratic National Committee leaders as the group considers hosting its 2028 presidential nominating convention in her district. U.S. Rep. Jason Crow was present, but DeGette said she had a conflict. She said she did meet with the DNC delegation during its visit.
“Diana DeGette is nonexistent and has been nonexistent as long as I’ve been a resident of CD1,” James said. “Thatap why I’m running. … In Colorado’s capital city, CD1 should be leading the conversation.”
Mail ballots for the Democratic primary are set to go out starting June 8. The 1st District generally follows Denver city boundaries and includes Glendale and Holly Hills.
