Far-left challengers to Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) are picking up support in internal party proceedings in what some progressives are touting as a sign of the incumbents’ vulnerabilities. 

But local experts say those developments shouldn’t necessarily be read as signs that the two establishment Democrats are on their way out — the state’s Democratic Party processes tend to favor more progressive candidates, and both Hickenlooper and DeGette still have strong advantages going into the primary later this year.

In the Senate race, Hickenlooper, facing state Sen. Julie Gonzales, dropped out of the Democratic caucus nominating process, choosing to qualify for the June primary through petition signatures instead, a sign he’s facing resistance from  typically left-wing party activists.

In the 1st Congressional District, far-left candidate Melat Kiros won nearly two-thirds of the Democratic Party delegates’ votes in Denver last weekend, nearly doubling DeGette’s support, and calling DeGette’s spot on the ballot into question.

Gonzales is a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America who was elected to the state Senate with the help of the group, but left the organization ahead of her run for Congress. 

From the start of her campaign, she’s made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her bid, accusing Israel of genocide, supporting an arms embargo and vowing, “I will never vote to send U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel. Especially when communities here at home are being told there’s no money for schools or healthcare.”

Gonazales has also fundraised off of her opposition to Israel and AIPAC, calling the group’s support of Hickenlooper “repulsive and immoral,” and accusing Hickenlooper of funding “a genocide in Palestine” with taxpayer funds while depriving Americans of social services.

Another lesser-known candidate in the Senate, University of Colorado Professor Karen Breslin, is, like Gonzales and Kiros, endorsed by the extreme anti-Israel group Track AIPAC.

Kiros, 28, is running with the backing of the far-left Justice Democrats and the local DSA. Kiros has made an arms embargo on Israel one of her primary talking points, as well as described the war in Gaza as a genocide and Israel as an apartheid state. She said she was inspired to run for office in part by the defeats of anti-Israel Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) last cycle.

Kiros lost her job at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for publishing a column denouncing an open letter signed by hundreds of top law firms that called on law schools to do more to address antisemitism on their campuses. The primary premise of the column was that calling for the elimination of Israel is not antisemitic and that “conflat[ing] [antisemitism] with the geo-political question of Israel’s legitimacy is one of the greatest travesties in this conflict.”

In the op-ed, which she published a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Kiros wrote, “By conflating ‘calls for the elimination of the Israeli state’ with anti-Semitism, you delegitimize any solution that forces Israel to reckon with its colonial role in Palestine, including one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike,” she continued.

She also appeared to defend Hamas, and those who have expressed support for it, in the piece. Though she said that there was “no justification” for Hamas’ attacks, she also said that “it cannot be forgotten that violence does not occur in a vacuum” and questioned the description of “acts of Palestinian resistance” as “terrorism.”

“There has never been, in the history of the entire human race, a people whose land was violently taken from them, whose freedoms and rights were relegated to second-class citizenship, and whose very existence was systematically threatened by its occupier, who did not resist with violence in kind,” Kiros wrote. “And yet, acknowledging the seemingly obvious symptom of violent resistance to violent colonialism has led to the loss of employment and freedom to numerous individuals, particularly in places that claim to value freedom of speech.”

The piece is rife with factual errors and misrepresentations, including that Hamas only operates in Gaza and not the West Bank. It also described Israel’s founding as an act of colonialism imposed by a “brutalizing imperial power” to aid “a minority of Jewish people who subscribed to Zionism” and an effort to “discredit the indigeneity of the Palestinians and the existence of Palestine itself.”

While not as extreme as Kiros, DeGette has taken stances critical of Israel as well, including signing a letter calling for unilateral U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood and opposing additional offensive aid to Israel.

“I have been saying for months that I would not support additional offensive weapon sales to Israel that could be used against innocent Palestinians,” she said in December. “More weapons are the last thing we need in the region. We need a permanent ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid, and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.” 

Local political strategists said that, while these party processes should be a signal for both incumbents to take their opponents seriously, they aren’t necessarily a sign that either is likely to be defeated in the upcoming election. The delegates and activists who participate in such votes are generally more progressive and politically engaged than the electorate at large.

“It’s always been very much an insider game,” Jim Carpenter, a longtime Colorado political strategist, said of the process. “It’s always been … relatively easy to get your supporters into that and make an awful lot of noise that then kind of fades out in the primary. … The people who participate in the caucuses [are] a very different set of people than vote in the primary.”

“That reflects the party insiders, not the broader party rank-and-file,” Carpenter said.

The Denver area in particular has a large and active DSA contingent and progressives have tended to do well in internal proceedings in recent years, but those results have been a poor predictor and rarely reflective of the primary voting base, Carpenter said. If anything, finishing in the top spot in the internal process has sometimes been a poor omen for campaigns.

“If you’re putting money on this in Polymarket, you wouldn’t really want to use the caucuses as a leading indicator,” Rick Ridder, a longtime Democratic political strategist and pollster in Colorado, told Jewish Insider.

Ridder also emphasized that, with significant financial advantages over their opponents, both Hickenlooper and DeGette are positioned to win, noting that for more than 50 years, the candidates who have spent the most on television and digital ads have won in federal and statewide races.

Carpenter echoed that view, saying that as long as the two incumbents continue to raise money and remain active on the trail to emphasize their records and turn out their base, they should be well-positioned to win, though they have to take the challenges seriously, particularly when some Democrats are looking for generational change.

“Political prognostication is a dangerous business but I think they’ll be fine once the primary campaign really starts, and they can then more directly communicate with voters, and there’ll be a much bigger pool,” he said, noting that independents, with whom Hickenlooper has long been popular, can also vote in Democratic primaries in Colorado.

Carpenter said that Gonzales has a minimal statewide profile and has not proven to be a strong fundraiser so far, potentially leaving her with few resources to take on Hickenlooper. He added that the DSA and Justice Democrats, backing Kiros, are vocal and active, but “don’t have a constituency here.”

Hickenlooper, who also achieved ballot access through the petitioning process in 2020, has already collected the signatures necessary to qualify for the primary election, and framed his participation in the caucus process as aimed at energizing supporters.

“The campaign has already submitted the petitions needed to get on the ballot so our focus in participating in the process up to this point was to help energize the base, meet with voters, and support the work of our county parties,” Hickenlooper’s spokesperson said. “The Senator appreciates everyone who participated in the process and really enjoyed having conversations with folks across the state.”

Gonzales claimed that Hickenlooper’s decision was an attempt to avoid voters. 

“How you show up matters, not just when things are easy, but especially when things are hard. I’ve spent my career walking picket lines, organizing tenants + teachers, and listening to working people across Colorado. That’s what you do when you actually want to earn people’s trust,” she said on X.

Like Hickenlooper’s campaign, DeGette’s campaign similarly downplayed the results of the delegate vote in a statement.

“Diana DeGette has worked hard for Denver for over 30 years and is grateful she is on track to make the ballot through the assembly process, despite the major technical issues with the party’s software platform and serious questions about the process,” a DeGette spokesperson told Colorado Politics, addressing the results of the delegate poll. “She enjoyed connecting with Democrats about the issues that matter to them.”

Kiros told the Denver Post the results were “a testament to the organizing we were doing and the lack of organizing [DeGette] was doing on her part — and her thinking she would coast through.”

The recent caucuses were also plagued by technical issues related to a new app-based voting system.

Hickenlooper had $3.9 million on hand as of the end of 2025, dwarfing Gonzales’ $161,000 war chest. Degette finished the year with $535,000, as compared to Kiros’ $64,000. Hickenlooper is also well ahead of Gonzales in polling.