How the Democrats are looking to win in Colorado and capture Congress

DENVER — The future of the Democratic Party is on display in Colorado. The state’s choices for U.S. House candidates for the 2026 election feature a member of the Democratic Socialists of America party and another whose platform might be mistaken for that of a Republican as she runs in a district considered a safe seat for the GOP.

Most of the state’s eight congressional seats are solidly Democratic or Republican, and safe seats often attract candidates at the extremes of their parties. As candidates aligned with democratic socialist ideals have picked up primary wins across the country this year — including Melat Kiros in Colorado — some Democratic Party traditionalists have become concerned with the leftward shift, fearing it could harm chances of winning enough seats in November to assume a majority in the House, Senate or both.

Colorado is a state with a widely varied electorate that’s becomes more solidly Democratic in recent decades, but which still holds a strong conservative and libertarian streak.

Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer, was one of the first democratic socialist candidates to make waves on a national level when she upset longtime Rep. Diana DeGette for the Democratic nomination in Colorado’s first congressional district in June.

The Democratic Socialists of America platform calls for freeing Palestine, healthcare for all and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, among other things, putting it well to left of center in the current American political system.

“There was a certain anti-incumbent energy that was felt all across the country that helped us a great deal,” Kiros said about her primary victory, talking with CNBC at a coffee shop in Denver’s Hale neighborhood. “What we were doing was getting volunteers and just actually meeting voters where they were at.”

She added, “the fight that we have is with the system itself and with campaign finance laws, and I think that gave people a more hopeful thing to hold on to, rather than finding reasons to be upset about this incumbent who actually did a lot of great things for us and for our district.”

DeGette’s office didn’t respond to requests for an interview. She has represented Colorado in the U.S. House since 1997.

Democrats are hoping to win the House and possibly even the Senate at a time when President Donald Trump’s popularity is at historic lows.

Far-left candidates may pose a risk to that effort, on the theory that a smaller portion of the electorate will be willing to vote for them. At the same time, the Tea Party insurgency in the Republican Party starting in 2010, where many right-wing candidates succeeded, shows there is a pathway for someone on one side of the political spectrum to win higher office.

More voters would be more likely to support a democratic socialist candidate than a Make America Great Again supporter or a candidate endorsed by Trump, a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released in July found.

And DSA-affiliated candidates are making…