Migrant Wins Democratic Primary in Denver
Melat Kiros won — AP called it at 10:03 p.m. Tuesday, 49%-44% over 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
WASHINGTON — Eleven months old. That’s how old Melat Kiros was when her family landed in Denver, having fled Tigray, Ethiopia, weeks after a genocide there that Washington still hasn’t fully reckoned with. On Tuesday night, at 29, she became the Democratic nominee to represent that same city in Congress — unseating Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., an incumbent who has held the seat since before Kiros was born.
The Associated Press called Colorado’s 1st Congressional District primary for Kiros at 10:03 p.m., with unofficial returns showing her ahead of DeGette by roughly six points, 49% to 44%, as University of Colorado Regent Wanda James finished a distant third with just over 7%. It was a rebuke of Colorado’s longest-serving member of Congress — delivered by a first-generation immigrant who spent the campaign’s final stretch pulling espresso shots at a Denver coffee shop
.From Tigray to Denver
Kiros was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and immigrated to Denver with her fam…