\n<\/p>\n
Attorney Melat Kiros<\/span> lost her job in 2023 after she wrote a post on Medium<\/a> criticizing law firms, including her own, for opposing pro-Palestine protests and \u201cchilling future lawyers\u2019 employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government\u2019s actions and its legitimacy.\u201d Now, she\u2019s running for Congress to replace a nearly three-decade incumbent in Denver and calling to end U.S. military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n The progressive outfit Justice Democrats announced Thursday it was endorsing Kiros, who first launched her campaign in July<\/a>. She\u2019s the sixth candidate the group is backing in the upcoming midterm primaries, as Justice Democrats recharts its course after pro-Israel groups last cycle helped oust two of its star recruits, Reps. Jamaal Bowman<\/a>, D-N.Y., and Cori Bush<\/a>, D-Mo.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Intercept, Kiros, who is 28, said watching Bowman and Bush lose their races and President Donald Trump take back the White House fueled despair among people her age. \u201cBut ultimately there are things that we can do, common-sense policies that we can pass \u2014 like Medicare for All, housing first, universal child care \u2014 that we just need people in Congress that actually represent us and not their wealthy donors to fight for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wish they could speak up too, but \u2026 they couldn\u2019t afford to lose their health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Kiros has also been motivated by what she described as a \u201ccoercive market\u201d that has chilled speech against genocide in Gaza. She decided to write the post that ultimately led to her firing after her experience protesting another genocide in her hometown of Tigray, Ethiopia. After she lost her job, she took on policy work in a Ph.D. program, which eventually motivated her to run for Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cI got messages from hundreds of attorneys afterwards saying that they wish they could speak up too, but that they couldn\u2019t afford to lose their job, that they couldn\u2019t afford to lose their health insurance,\u201d Kiros said. She doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s true freedom of expression exists \u201cwhen you can\u2019t speak out on basic human rights without it risking your job.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Congress, Kiros hopes to take on the issue of big money in politics \u2014 not just how it shapes policy, but how it has chilled speech<\/a> on matters of human rights.<\/p>\n In her campaign against Rep. Diana DeGette, who was elected the year before she was born, Kiros is arguing the incumbent has grown more disconnected from her constituents over her 28 years in Congress \u2014 and embodies the Democratic Party\u2019s failures to deliver in the face of a right-wing assault on civil liberties and the corporate and elite capture of bipartisan politics. <\/p>\n \u201cDeGette is a symptom of a political system that rewards complacency, not courage,\u201d Justice Democrats wrote in its endorsement of Kiros. The group has focused its 2026 strategy on challenging incumbents it says are beholden to corporate donors and trying to build a bench in Congress to fight authoritarianism, corporate super PACs, and billionaire-funded lobbying groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n DeGette did not respond to requests for comment before publication.<\/p>\n DeGette\u2019s campaign, meanwhile, is highlighting what she describes as her experience fighting to protect the environment and expand access to health care. As a longtime incumbent, she has a clear fundraising advantage: DeGette has raised just under half a million dollars this year, more than three times the $125,000 Kiros has raised so far. <\/p>\n Kiros said most of her campaign funds have come from more than 2,300 individual donors, most of them small-dollar, with an average donation of $47, though the campaign\u2019s latest FEC filings only reflect about 300 individual donors. (FEC records<\/a> do not always include contributions from donors who have given under $200.)<\/p>\n In addition to Kiros, five other Democratic candidates are currently slated to challenge DeGette, including veteran Wanda James<\/a>, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Intercept, Kiros criticized DeGette for taking more than $5 million throughout her career<\/a> from corporate PACs. Justice Democrats has also denounced her for taking money from lobbies for the pharmaceutical, fossil fuel, and defense industries. According to OpenSecrets, DeGette\u2019s top career contributor is the law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, founded and chaired by attorney and former AIPAC Vice President and board member Norman Brownstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n After taking crushing losses in two high-profile races in which AIPAC spent heavily last cycle, Justice Democrats has endorsed five other candidates so far this cycle, challenging incumbents in five states. That includes Bush in her comeback run for her old seat in Missouri\u2019s 1st Congressional District, state Rep. Justin Pearson in Tennessee\u2019s 9th District, Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York\u2019s 13th District, Angela Gonzales Torres<\/a> in California\u2019s 34th District, and state Rep. Donavan McKinney<\/a> in Michigan\u2019s 13th District. The group is \u201con track\u201d to endorse at least 10 new candidates by January, according to its spokesperson, Usamah Andrabi.<\/p>\n The strategy is a shift from 2024, when Justice Democrats only endorsed its incumbents after making its name backing new insurgent candidates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started this cycle with clear eyes about our intentions to fight back and win against AIPAC, crypto, and every other corporate lobby by challenging as many entrenched corporate incumbents and electing real, working-class champions to lead this party forward,\u201d Andrabi said.<\/p>\n\n