Washington — Melat Kiros, who defeated Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s primary in July, was born in 1997, the same year DeGette began her decadeslong congressional career.
On Tuesday night, the 29-year-old democratic socialist made history as the first Generation Z woman to be elected to Congress. Kiros joins Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, who in 2022 was the first member of the generation born between 1997 and 2012 to win a congressional seat.
In an interview with CBS News, Kiros declined to say what advice she’s received from Frost about entering Congress as the youngest member, but said he’s “been really wonderful in helping me get a sense of what it’s like walking into this institution as young as we are.”
She knows she has a lot to learn: “What’s intimidating is the sheer amount of knowledge that is necessary to be able to be effective in Congress, and that’s going to take time to grow and build.”
Nonetheless, Kiros says she thinks of her youth “as one of my greatest advantages.”
“I’m not burdened by the traditions and the norms of the past,” she said.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kiros’ family immigrated to Denver when she was a baby. She graduated from Washington College in Maryland in 2018, where she studied political science and economics, before earning a law degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
She was fired from a top New York City law firm in 2023 after she refused to take down an open letter to dozens of law firms who had urged law school deans to crack down on antisemitism on campuses as students engaged in pro-Palestinian protests. Kiros condemned antisemitism, but warned the law firms, including the one she worked for, against conflating “such bigotry with the geo-political question of Israel’s legitimacy.”
“While the letter makes no explicit threats against one’s potential employment with the signatories’ firms, the chilling effect is undeniable,” she wrote in November 2023. “The right to question not only the legitimacy of a government but also its actions is the bedrock principle of a true democracy. And despite claiming to be the one and only democracy in the Middle East, the Israeli government has weaponized anti-Semitism to defend its crimes against the Palestinian people and quell any resistance or critique against it.”
Kiros started thinking more seriously about politics in general after her firing. She moved back to Colorado and joined Democratic congressional candidate John Padora’s campaign in 2024 as his communications director. It was after President Trump won a second term that she considered running.
“That’s not an election we should have lost, and I believe a big part of why we lost is because the Democratic Party lost touch with its voters,” she said.
Kiros’ primary win was part of a wave of leftwing insurgent victories in the spring and summer that kindled the Democratic Party’s fight over the direction of the party. Kiros, who worked as a barista while pursuing a doctoral degree in public policy after her move back to Colorado, framed her congressional bid around generational change. She made affordability and her opposition to U.S. support for Israel central themes of her campaign, while casting DeGette as beholden to corporate donors. DeGette knocked the political newcomer for her lack of experience, arguing “now is not the time to gamble and send somebody with no experience to Washington.”
“People, I think, were really eager to see someone who is younger, who has lived experience with the economy that we’re living through right now, the climate crisis that we are going to have to deal with the consequences of,” Kiros said.
As the campaign gained momentum, Kiros, who has paused her PhD studies, said she had to reduce her barista shifts and stay with a friend who charged her below-market rent.
“It’s incredibly hard for young people to run campaigns at any level,” Kiros said. “The way that we organize our election system in this country is extremely prohibitive for young people, for working-class people.”
Padora, the former congressional candidate, said he was “not the least bit surprised by her rise to national politics,” saying Kiros was able to tap into “the deep frustration and disdain many Americans feel toward a disconnected political establishment.”
“Melat’s political rise demonstrates that the next generation doesn’t need the blessing, backing, or permission of a disconnected party establishment to pursue public office,” Padora said in an email to CBS News.
According to research from Future Caucus, 117 candidates from Gen Z filed to run for Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. The report found Gen Z candidates were less likely to make it to the general election compared with other age groups, with just 24 candidates appearing on the November ballots.
Under the Constitution, most of Gen Z is ineligible to serve in Congress. The minimum age to serve in the House is 25. In the Senate it’s 30.
Kiros said members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have also been helping her and other new, young members navigate the transition to Washington so they can hit the ground running.
“It’s just things as simple as like, make sure you live close enough to the Capitol so you can get there as quickly as possible,” Kiros said. “No one really tells you any of this. You’re just kind of expected to figure it out on your own. But the progressive incumbent members have been really, really intentional about making sure that we are as prepared as possible, so that we’re not spending so much time onboarding and learning the ropes.”
Come January, Kiros wants Democrats to focus on reversing the cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that were included in Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Her other policy goals include ending military aid to Israel, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and laying the groundwork for Medicare for All, universal childcare and eldercare.
With her victory, Kiros said voters have made clear that they want their elected officials to champion “bold issues” to address the affordability crisis.
“Whatever we’ve offered before is simply not enough,” she said. “And in order for us to maintain this momentum, we’re going to have to deliver something truly meaningful and tangible to the American people.”
