AI-generated symbolic illustration of Colorado Democrats facing a choice between governing-center politics and movement-left primary challenges.
Grasping Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
CIVPAC endorses Representative Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.
This is not a race between a centrist Democrat and a left-wing Democrat. Representative DeGette is a mainstream progressive Democrat from a heavily Democratic district. CIVPAC does not endorse her because she is a centrist. She is not.
The question is different: should Democratic primary voters replace an experienced, mainstream progressive incumbent with a democratic-socialist challenger whose candidacy has become part of a broader effort to push the Democratic Party further toward movement-left politics in its safest urban districts?
CIVPAC believes the answer is no.
Colorado’s 1st Congressional District is safely Democratic. That means the Democratic primary is likely to decide who represents the district. In such districts, voters may be tempted to treat the primary as a vehicle for ideological expression rather than as a choice about governance, institutional competence, and the national image of the Democratic Party.
That temptation is dangerous.
Melat Kiros is an energetic challenger and represents a real current inside the Democratic Party: more confrontational, more ideological, more impatient with institutional experience, and more interested in movement politics. CIVPAC does not object to new candidates merely because they are new. Nor does CIVPAC believe incumbents are entitled to renomination. Parties need competition, generational renewal, and serious challenges to complacency.
But not every insurgency is an improvement.
Representative DeGette has served in Congress for many years. Longevity alone is not a reason to endorse a candidate, but experience is not a defect. In Congress, institutional knowledge matters. Committee work matters. Legislative relationships matter. Serious public policy often depends on people who understand how government actually functions.
The case for replacing DeGette should therefore require more than impatience, novelty, or ideological excitement. It should require a persuasive showing that the challenger would improve representation, strengthen the party’s governing capacity, and broaden rather than narrow the Democratic coalition.
CIVPAC does not see that case here.
The New York primary results should be a warning. In several deep-blue districts, Democratic voters have chosen candidates who may satisfy activist energy but risk making the national Democratic brand more ideological, more urban, more confrontational, and less persuasive to voters the party needs in red, pink, and purple places. Colorado Democrats should not repeat that mistake.
This is how a party grasps defeat from the jaws of victory. Democrats have a chance to present themselves as the serious governing alternative to Trumpism. They undermine that opportunity when they allow their safest districts to become showcases for candidates who make the party easier for Republicans to caricature and harder for moderates to trust.
Representative DeGette is not a CIVPAC ideal candidate. But the relevant choice in this primary is not between centrism and progressivism. It is between an experienced mainstream progressive and a challenger whose victory would further strengthen the movement-left direction of the party in one of its safest seats.
CIVPAC therefore endorses Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.
We welcome your feedback on this endorsement. Please include the candidate or race you are commenting on. Send us your thoughts here.