Melat Kiros

Melat Kiros was born in Addis Ababa shortly before her father was selected through the U.S. diversity visa lottery.¹ Her family settled in Denver, where her parents worked multiple jobs while her father attended pharmacy school and relatives and friends helped with groceries, child care and finding work.¹

Kiros studied political science and economics at Washington College and earned a Notre Dame law degree in 2022.¹ Her work has included practicing law in New York and working as a barista while pursuing further public policy studies, giving her campaign a professional background that spans a law office and a coffee counter.¹

She defeated longtime incumbent Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary, campaigning on the cost of living in the city where she grew up.² She supports a Housing First approach to homelessness, rent stabilization and policies intended to keep longtime residents from being priced out, along with changes to money's influence in politics.²

Kiros also supports Medicare for All, universal child care and elder care, and higher taxes on large fortunes and corporations.³ Her foreign policy platform calls for ending American military entanglements, and she accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.³ She faces Republican Christy Peterson and independent Shimon Blau in the First District, with health care, household costs and the direction of federal government prominent issues in their campaigns.³