The wave of victories for Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates in New York City on Tuesday is buoying the hopes of progressives that the far left can pull off upsets against two Democratic incumbents in Colorado’s Tuesday primary elections.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) is facing a challenge from Melat Kiros, whose campaign has attracted substantial national attention and backing from several anti-Israel organizations and individuals including the Justice Democrats, DSA, Sunrise Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, TrackAIPAC, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Chris Rabb, Hasan Piker and, most recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). 

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) is also facing a DSA-aligned challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, though her campaign hasn’t garnered as much attention as Kiros’.

Just this week, in an interview with the local channel 9News, Kiros declined to call the firebombing of a hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo. last year antisemitic.

“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator. All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed, and I don’t even know what the people that were at that protest believed too,” she said. “I don’t know what his intentions were.”

The House voted unanimously last year to condemn the attack as an antisemitic incident. Only Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), two of the leading anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress, voted present.

Kiros lost her job at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for publishing a column denouncing hundreds of top law firms that called on law schools to do more to address antisemitism on their campuses. The column argued that calling for the elimination of Israel is not antisemitic and defended Hamas and those who have expressed support for it.

Kiros has made a complete arms embargo on Israel a central part of her campaign and has described the war in Gaza as a genocide and Israel as an apartheid state.

“I believe that our selling of arms to Israel, defensive or offensive, gives them the cover to continue the genocide that’s taking place in Palestine, and now the ethnic cleansing that’s taking place in Lebanon,” Kiros said in the local interview.

Kiros said in the interview that she did not agree with Piker that Hamas is a “lesser evil” than Israel, and denied that she thought the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were justified.

Jim Carpenter, a Democratic political strategist in the state, predicted that DeGette “will ultimately win” but “this is certainly the toughest primary challenge she’s had in a really long time, if ever, since she was elected — lots of visibility, lots of interest.”

A poll commissioned by the Justice Democrats found Kiros leading DeGette 41-36%.

Multiple local venues recently declined to host a rally led by Kiros and Piker, which Kiros blamed on pressure from DeGette’s donors — something DeGette’s campaign has called “ridiculous.” Piker and Gonzales, citing security threats, declined to appear at a rescheduled rally in front of the state Capitol.

DeGette has been blasting Kiros over her affiliation with Piker, highlighting the streamer’s comments — supporting Hamas, dismissing sexual violence on Oct. 7, claiming that the U.S. deserved 9/11 and that he “hate[s] this country so much.”

“If Melat Kiros wants to campaign with someone who said America deserved 9/11 we’d do nothing to stop her,” a DeGette spokesperson told Colorado Newsline.

Carpenter highlighted the Sanders endorsement of Kiros as particularly valuable, noting that the senator has been popular in the state. But he also highlighted the significant influx of outside spending that has flowed into the race in favor of DeGette and targeting Kiros.

One group, Pro-Choice Majority Action, has spent more than $1.5 million boosting DeGette and attacking Kiros. Some observers have tied that spending to AIPAC, noting that the group took in close to $900,000 from EDW Action Fund, which in turn received $1 million from the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project in May.

A UDP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. DeGette has not been consistently supportive of Israel, including signing a letter calling for unilateral U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood and opposing additional offensive aid to Israel, but UDP has at times supported candidates not fully aligned with AIPAC’s policies in the interest of defeating others with more extreme records.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a former Progressive Caucus chair, also recorded a last-minute video offering support for DeGette, describing her as critical to advancing Medicare for All.

Meanwhile, Justice Democrats has spent more than $500,000 supporting Kiros and opposing DeGette, and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC has spent $150,000 in support of Kiros.

Carpenter told Jewish Insider that, particularly in the wake of a party delegate vote earlier this year when DeGette was badly beaten by Kiros and came close to falling short of the threshold to appear on the ballot, the congresswoman has been campaigning aggressively.

Carpenter said that the anti-DeGette vote might ultimately come out split: University of Colorado Regent Wanda James is also challenging DeGette, and is likely to win support from some Black voters. 

Though some in the progressive sphere have interpreted the New York City victories as a sign of momentum for an ascendant far left nationwide, Carpenter said that the results in New York don’t necessarily reflect Colorado’s own voting base.

“Colorado’s politics are very different,” he said. “All politics are local. I get the enthusiasm, and I get everybody trying to point to a trend and all of that. I just don’t think that’s going to hold in Colorado. Denver is very liberal but it’s a different kind of Democrat than the DSA.”

Gonzales is less likely to pose a serious challenge to Hickenlooper, the state’s former governor, having trailed significantly behind him in fundraising. “Gonzales just hasn’t had the resources really to compete statewide,” Carpenter said.

She’s been visible on social media and active in the Denver media market but “she just hasn’t had the ability to do paid advertising in a way that I think is any kind of real threat to Hickenlooper,” Carpenter said. Hickenlooper’s biggest vulnerabilities may be his age, 74, and a perception of him as an establishment Washington Democrat.

But Hickenlooper has also “taken this very seriously” and has been campaigning actively, reminding voters of his record during his two terms as senator and one term as governor, Carpenter said. The state also allows unaffiliated voters to choose the party’s primary in which to vote, and such voters have typically been a boon for Hickenlooper in the past, Carpenter added.

From the start of her campaign, Gonzales has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her bid, accusing Israel of genocide, supporting an arms embargo and fundraising based on her opposition to Israel and AIPAC. TrackAIPAC also endorsed Gonzales.

Also on Tuesday, state Rep. Manny Rutinel faces former state Rep. Shannon Bird in a primary for a key swing seat held by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO). Carpenter said that the race is difficult to predict and both have been strong candidates with built-in advantages and key endorsements.

Democratic Majority for Israel is supporting Bird and called the race one of its top priorities for the cycle. Bird has long been a strong supporter of Israel and vocal in opposition to antisemitism. Rutinel’s views on Israel have been less clear, and his past as a campus activist has worried some pro-Israel Democrats. 

As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, according to a local news report, Rutinel attended a demonstration co-organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, but a Rutinel spokesperson, in a statement to JI, denied that Rutinel had any affiliation with SJP and said the demonstration was focused on police brutality in the U.S.

“Manny supports Israel’s right to exist and supports a two-state solution with secure borders to bring peace,” a campaign spokesperson said. Rutinel also “supports U.S. security assistance to Israel in line with the Obama administration’s 2016 memorandum of understanding,” the spokesperson added.

Carpenter said that Bird has a longer political record and deeper roots in the district, which she has leaned on in her campaign, but also may face headwinds from a perception of her as a moderate Democrat. Rutinel might benefit from the substantial Latino vote in the district.

“Bird is making the argument that because it’s a swing district that is more moderate … that’s what’s going to appeal” in the general election, Carpenter said. “That’s a harder message in a Democratic primary.”

Rutinel leaned into more of a progressive posture but “it seems to me like he’s trying to moderate that a little bit, and has gotten tripped up in a couple of debates on some of the more left progressive positions that he had taken in the past. It’s not a simple progressive-versus-establishment divide there, but it is kind of shaking out that way,” Carpenter continued.

Bird is also backed by moderate groups including the NewDems, Blue Dog PAC and Welcome PAC, as well as EMILY’s List and Elect Democratic Women.

Rutinel is backed by an array of both moderate and progressive lawmakers including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Lou Correa (D-CA), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Emily Randall (D-WA), Luz Rivas (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Pat Ryan (D-NY).

The state’s gubernatorial primary is also set for Tuesday, where recent polling shows Attorney General Phil Weiser taking the lead for the first time against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). The poll was conducted by a group supporting Weiser and showed that a significant portion of the voting base is still undecided.

Carpenter said that Weiser’s last-minute surge might signal that Bennet’s longtime service in Washington is being seen as a negative on the campaign trail, and he’s been tagged as not being anti-Trump enough in his time in the Senate.

But he said he didn’t think that the anti-establishment mood would necessarily be sufficient to oust DeGette or Hickenlooper, noting that Weiser himself is a well-known quantity and popular among Colorado Democrats going into the race.

“I think he benefits a little bit more from that than Gonzales or Kiros would,” Carpenter said.

Some moderate and establishment Democrats are raising alarms over the surge of democratic socialists in New York City congressional primaries on Tuesday — which took down two Democratic incumbents. But others are dismissing the phenomenon as one localized to New York City and not applicable to the party at large.

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), a longtime Democratic leader from Queens, lamented Tuesday’s results, particularly Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s (D-NY) loss.

Meeks told reporters that the party as a whole is not a socialist party, and that socialist ideas are very much out of step with the country overall. He said he doesn’t see the party headed in that direction, potentially outside of certain cities.

“That’s not where America is, that only happens in certain parts — like New York City now, apparently — deep, deep, deep blue,” Meeks said. If the entire party follows the same path, “that means that all the other seats that are not [deep blue], we can never win, which means we will never be in the majority, and we [will] never get anything done.”

Meeks told reporters that he believes in capitalism, not socialism, but argued that free markets and opportunities are fully compatible with assistance to help uplift those in need.

He criticized chants of “you’re next” targeting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) at candidate Claire Valdez’s victory party on Tuesday night as unproductive, and noted that ousting Jeffries would deprive New York of a potential speaker of the House, who would also be the first Black House speaker in history.

Meeks said he hopes that the far left doesn’t become a Democratic version of the GOP’s House Freedom Caucus, which routinely sparks gridlock on the House floor with various obstructionist tactics.

“You can’t criticize the MAGAs and then be like the MAGAs, that’s inconsistent,” Meeks said. “That’s why we have the most unproductive Congress right now. … We shouldn’t be that, we want to be the opposite of that. We want to be productive, we want to be able to go help folks.”

Meeks noted that Black and Hispanic communities in Espaillat’s district overwhelmingly sided with the congressman — with newcomers more supportive of his challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier.

“I understand that neighborhoods don’t always stay the same … but we got to look at the people that have been there for a long period of time, also, so that they are not just pushed to the side. And how do you work collectively together to bring folks together?” Meeks said.

Pressed on whether some of the candidates’ past statements suggest they want to eliminate Israel, rather than see coexistence and a two-state solution, Meeks told Jewish Insider that “we’ll see when they get there” but “if you go by what they’ve said in the past, that would worry me if they stay [there].”

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), a leading moderate, told JI, “The results in New York City should be a wake-up call for every common-sense Democrat,” arguing that mainstream Democrats are being caught flat-footed by the far left. He called for the party to “reject extremism and embrace common sense.”

“The DSA is not the Democratic Party, and if moderates don’t organize, the far left will continue pushing our party toward an agenda that is increasingly disconnected from mainstream voters,” Suozzi, a co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, said. “Americans want leaders who solve problems and bring people together. They also expect Democrats to confront antisemitism clearly and unequivocally.”

He told reporters that Democratic moderates have to “work harder to organize. It’s not enough to just talk at a cocktail party” and complain, they need to “do the hard work necessary to provide solutions to the problems people face in their lives.”

Suozzi told JI that Democrats “should be able to support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself and still work toward a lasting peace that protects innocent lives” and “cannot allow those who excuse antisemitism, tolerate anti-Jewish hatred or traffic in division to define our party.” 

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said that the night was a victory for those who “hate America and hate the U.S.-Israel policy.

“This was a night where bomb throwers won, and problem solvers lost,” Gottheimer said. “Those who believe deeply in supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship, but beyond that, believe deeply in fighting antisemitism — your candidates didn’t win.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) called the winning NYC candidates “a treasure for Republicans,” referencing some past incendiary comments by Chevalier.

Meanwhile, multiple Democrats facing DSA-aligned challengers say they’re not concerned that the results are an omen for their own races.

Asked whether he’s worried about his primary challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a former DSA member who dominated internal Democratic Party proceedings, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) laughed and said simply, “No.”

Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), who is facing off next month against former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), also said he doesn’t see how Tuesday’s results are applicable to his own race.

“Why would primaries in New York concern me in my race?” Bell told JI. “All politics are local and our base, the folks in St. Louis, are going to make and we’re going to make our case — democracy in action.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told JI “they’re making blue seats bluer” and are “not helping us take control of Congress,” but also said that the DSA is “uniquely a New York problem” that doesn’t impact him in Florida. Moskowitz faces a primary challenge from DSA-endorsed challenger.

At the same time, Moskowitz described anti-Israel trends as a larger problem within the Democratic Party.

“I’m concerned about the entire movement, [through]out the whole party,” Moskowitz said. “It’s not just what happened in New York last night.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that the primaries show that the party as a whole is energized.

“There’s tremendous energy in the Democratic Party in the more moderate places, like we saw in the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, like Iowa this year, and from the more progressive places like New York, and we’re all fighting hard together to stop [President Donald] Trump,” Schumer said.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 3 House Democrat, said he’s “not at all concerned” about the growing socialist bloc employing similar tactics to the Freedom Caucus, and downplayed the idea that radical nominees would be a drag on other Democrats in the midterms.

“They’re going to put folks in ads all the time,” he said, referring to concerns that Republicans will highlight far-left Democrats to defeat other members of the party. “Republicans don’t have a track record to run on, so they’re going to use other issues. We’ve seen that time and time again.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that you “never want to read too much into what’s essentially a local or regional political context.”

He said that he sees the results as an “indisputable” sign of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s role as “the commanding political force” in the New York City area, and added that “there’s a lot of energy on the progressive side of the political equation in America today. That also seems pretty clear.”

Asked about the role Israel had played in the races, particularly the race between Goldman and Brad Lander, where there were few other obvious policy differences between the two candidates, Raskin noted that both Goldman and Lander “described themselves as liberal Zionists.”

He said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obviously unpopular in the Democratic Party, and argued that there are many in the party who strongly support Israel but reject Netanyahu, “and that sentiment undoubtedly carried the day.”

“It’s a loss to us on the Judiciary Committee to have Dan Goldman go because he was such an excellent prosecutor and he’s a great cross-examiner of administration witnesses and agendas,” Raskin continued. “But that race undoubtedly turned on questions of the Middle East.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a potential 2028 presidential contender, also said the results aren’t a reflection of the whole country or party.

“All politics is local,” Gallego said. “I think that’s what you … see right there. The candidates who ran very localized campaigns, that helped them [win].”

Gallego added that the results show the party is a “big tent, and that’s kind of coming through right now.”

“Every state is different, every place is different, every candidate’s going to be  different,” he said.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for two cycles, said that the results reflect the voter base in New York City.

“Those are really deep blue districts, so you expect that kind of vote in a Democratic primary,” Peters said.

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) also emphasized that his state is distinct from deep-blue New York City and said, “I think pundits are doing what pundits are doing. The takeaway from last night is that the Democratic Party is a big tent, and we’re having a robust conversation about how to make the lives of ordinary people better.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the outgoing No. 2 Senate Democrat, said he doesn’t know much about the races beyond that Mamdani-backed candidates won. He said he wasn’t aware of the fact that the candidates all shared an anti-Israel approach but called it “worrisome.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he hadn’t followed the races closely enough to understand the outcomes, but said, “I am a Virginia elected official, and Virginia is what I know really well. I just don’t know enough about New York politics — and I think it would be not a good idea to extrapolate New York City to a national level.”

Meanwhile, members of the far left are treating the results as a mandate for the Democratic Party and a signal of rising popularity for their chosen policies.

“Last night, voters across New York delivered a powerful message: the era of status quo politics is over,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said. “If Democrats regain control of Congress next year, they must listen to the people who put them in office. Status quo establishment policies are not enough. We must be bold. We must take on Oligarchy. We must represent working families and create a government that works for all, not just the few.”

He also called the victories a rebuke of AIPAC, the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industries and other moneyed interests.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said the results on Tuesday were “the beginning of a new, strong, bold Democratic Party” and pointed to other progressive victories outside of New York City.