Three Democrats are running against each other in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District on June 30: incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, former lawyer and Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros and University of Colorado Regent Wanda James.
Diana DeGette has served as the U.S. representative for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District since 1997. She holds a law degree. She is 68, married and has two children. She lives in Denver.
Melat Kiros is a lawyer who was fired from her law firm after writing an article defending pro-Palestinian student protestors. She is running as a Democratic Socialist. She is 29 and lives in Denver.
Wanda James is a former Navy officer, a current regent for the University of Colorado and co-owner of the nation’s first Black-owned cannabis dispensary. She is 62 and lives with her husband in Denver.
The Colorado Sun interviewed each of them to see where they stand on healthcare, immigration and other top issues.
(Note: There is no Republican primary for Colorado’s First Congressional District this year. Christy Peterson is the only Republican on the ballot.)
Here are their answers:
Jump to a topic What changes would you make to the U.S. healthcare system if you could? A public option? Medicare for All? Would you support federal legislation capping drug prices? Do you support raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? If so, to what? Do you support rent control? Colorado’s childcare system is in crisis, families of all incomes can’t afford care and are struggling to find care. The state’s only program subsidizing care is leaving 14,000 eligible kids on waiting lists. How would you tackle this problem in Congress? Should childcare be free for all families? If so, how should it be funded? Do you support the Green New Deal, which proposes to transition the country to 100% renewable energy while creating “green” jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Colorado is not on track to meet its climate goals, in large part due to slow progress cleaning up emissions from the transportation sector. This is despite a historic increase in electronic vehicle purchases. What policies would you pursue to reduce transportation emissions faster? How should the U.S. immigration process be reformed? Immigrants held at ICE’s detention center in Aurora describe prison-like conditions with poor medical care and quality of life. What would you do to address concerns about ICE detention centers? Do you support dismantling ICE? If yes, what should replace it? How would you improve housing availability and affordability for Coloradans? Would you vote to continue the tax cuts passed by the Republican-led Congress and President Donald Trump when they expire in 2029? Do you support getting rid of student debt? If so, how would you do it? Do you support banning stock trading for members of Congress? Do you support banning former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists? Should there be term limits for members of Congress? Do you support continued U.S. military funding for Israel? If so, should there be restrictions or conditions imposed on that funding? Do you think it was a good idea for the U.S. to go to war with Iran? And how would you vote on a war powers resolution to end the U.S. bombing of Iran? Do you support data center development? If not, why? If so, under what circumstances? Do you think Congress should pass a law regulating artificial intelligence? If yes, what should those regulations be?Use arrow keys (← →) or swipe to read through topics
HEALTHCARE
What changes would you make to the U.S. healthcare system if you could? A public option? Medicare for All?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said if Democrats take back the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, she will be the chair of the health subcommittee. “The first thing I will do is try to work towards adopting Medicare for All,” she said.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said she supports a single-payer healthcare system, canceling all medical debt and breaking up monopolies in the pharmaceutical, health insurance and healthcare provider sectors. “There’s too much consolidation that has led to a lot of high costs, and we need to increase that competition,” she said.
Wanda James
“I would absolutely would love to see Medicare for All,” James said. “I think it’s imperative that we get there.”
DRUG PRICES
Would you support federal legislation capping drug prices?
Diana DeGette
DeGette supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Melat Kiros
“Yes,” she said.
Wanda James
“100%,” she said.
MINIMUM WAGE
Do you support raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? If so, to what?
Diana DeGette
Yes. DeGette has sponsored legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said the minimum hourly wage should be raised federally to match the cost of living in each county. “At the very least, it needs to be $15, but in some cities, in some districts, it might need to be $22,” she said.
Wanda James
Yes. James said the federal minimum wage should be at least $15-16 per hour.
RENT CONTROL
Do you support rent control?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said rent control is a local issue.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said she supports rent stabilization at the federal level, meaning “largely capping the amount that rent can be raised every year, so some range from like 1-3%,” she said.
Wanda James
“Yes,” she said.
CHILDCARE CRISIS
Colorado’s childcare system is in crisis, with families of all incomes unable to afford care or are struggling to find care. The state’s only program subsidizing care is leaving 14,000 eligible kids on waiting lists. How would you tackle this problem in Congress?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said childcare is mostly a state and local issue. At the federal level, she wants to reverse the Trump administration’s cuts to federal childcare funding and add more investment for families through Medicaid, food stamps and childcare subsidies, including the Head Start program.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said she supports increased subsidies for the cost of childcare, childcare facility rental costs and childcare worker salaries.
Wanda James
James said there should be nationwide free pre-Kindergarten, bigger tax credits for parents and employer-based flexible spending accounts (similar to health savings accounts or HSAs) to pay for childcare. “This is a huge issue, especially for women choosing to go back to work when we are just absolutely trading off what you’re making to be able to offset the cost of daycare,” she said.
FREE CHILDCARE
Should childcare be free for all families? If so, how should it be funded?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said childcare should be free for families “who need it.” “I don’t see why I should have to pay for childcare for billionaires,” she said.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said at the very minimum the cost of childcare needs to be capped at 10% of a family’s income and it should be free for families below a certain income level. She said added federal investments should be paid for by efficiencies found in a multi-year audit of the federal government, cutting the Pentagon’s budget by 10% and closing tax loopholes and levying higher taxes on the “ultra wealthy.”
Wanda James
“Yes, I would be absolutely willing to take a look at that,” she said. “I don’t know what all of the the ins and outs of that would be, but I would definitely be open to looking at how that would play itself out.”
GREEN NEW DEAL
Do you support the Green New Deal, which proposes to transition the country to 100% renewable energy while creating “green” jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said she is trying to pass legislation that will transition the country to a fossil fuel-free economy.
Melat Kiros
“Yes, but it needs to be updated,” she said.” It was written before a lot of advancement in renewable energy technology and AI, so it needs to be updated to account for those changes.”
Wanda James
“Yes,” she said. “I think that there are so many different new ways and technologies behind energy resources, and America needs to lead in those discussions. I think that that’s going to be very important for us moving forward.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
Colorado is not on track to meet its climate goals, in large part due to slow progress cleaning up emissions from the transportation sector. This is despite a historic increase in electronic vehicle purchases. What policies would you pursue to reduce transportation emissions faster?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said the federal government needs to restore tax incentives for electric vehicle purchases and improve our transit systems. “I believe we need to strongly enforce air (quality) and we need to take action against polluters like Shattuck,” she said, referring to the Shattuck Chemical Company superfund site in Denver.
Melat Kiros
“I think EVs are great, I drive an EV, but if we’re serious about addressing climate through transportation policy, we need to be focusing on public transit, and that is where a great deal of federal dollars would be coming in, making sure that we are designing our cities and our neighborhoods to be pedestrian-centered rather than car-centered,” she said.
Wanda James
“Mass transit is a big piece of what it is that we can do so that people don’t have the need to have to use their cars for short trips, and back and forth to work,” she said. “I think that that’s very important to be able to be able to fund for people, and not just here in Colorado, but across the nation.”
IMMIGRATION
How should the U.S. immigration process be reformed?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said there needs to be a path to citizenship or legal residency for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. who have not committed crimes. Dreamers (people brought into the country as children) should receive an immediate path to citizenship, she said. She said temporary work permits for agricultural and construction workers, as well as visa programs for high-tech workers should be expanded.
Melat Kiros
Kiros supports a more efficient immigration process where people can move through the system faster. “We need more immigration judges, we need more case workers, we need more people at the border to process people as they’re coming through,” she said. “But more than anything else, we need to stop destabilizing other countries.” She said that is “leading to the influx of these folks that are trying to find refuge here in our country.”
Wanda James
“We should have a direct path to citizenship,” she said. “We should be able to have a worker program that allows people to come to America to … work and then return back home.” She said the country should be more open to people coming to the U.S. to study.
DETENTION CENTERS
Immigrants held at ICE’s detention center in Aurora describe prison-like conditions with poor medical care and quality of life. What would you do to address concerns about ICE detention centers?
Diana DeGette
“The private ICE detention center should be shut down immediately,” she said. “I’m opposed to privately owned detention facilities, and I always have been.”
Melat Kiros
“We have to release anybody and everybody that’s in there without any criminal record,” she said. Kiros called for more access to the facility for members of Congress to hold ICE accountable.
Wanda James
“I would abolish ICE,” she said. “There should be no ICE detention centers.”
DISMANTLING ICE
Do you support dismantling ICE? If yes, what should replace it?
Diana DeGette
She said,”ICE should be defunded and dismantled, and also, while we’re in the process of doing that, ICE agents should not be able to wear masks.” She said immigration enforcement officers should wear identification, and they should have judicial warrants to search people’s homes. ICE’s duties, such as enforcing international human trafficking laws, should be transferred to other agencies, DeGette said.
Melat Kiros
“We have to abolish ICE,” she said, pointing out that ICE was a relatively young agency established in 2002. “We enforced our immigration before through the Customs and Border Patrol with local police, with federal police. There’s nothing that has to replace it.”
Wanda James
“We have Customs and Border Patrol in place to protect our airports, to protect our borders,” she said. “Having militarized people on our streets, wearing masks, in … plain clothes and in unmarked cars, is just not something that we should be doing in America. Terrorizing hardworking people for no reason, making families afraid to go to school, making families afraid to go buy food, arresting children is just not something that America should be doing.”
HOUSING
How would you improve housing availability and affordability for Coloradans?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said she is working on a bill that would incentivize building homes for the middle-and lower-middle class and provide down payment assistance for first-time home buyers.
Melat Kiros
Kiros supports more government-built housing called “social housing” for people experiencing homelessness and people in need of affordable housing. She supports zoning and permitting reform to speed up housing construction. She wants 30% of housing priced at 30% of household incomes, and she wants to see community meetings between existing residents and prospective buyers and renters, leading to the construction of more affordable housing in more neighborhoods. “Being able to break bread with your future neighbor makes it a lot harder for you to hate them or be afraid of them, and makes it easier for neighborhoods to welcome these kinds of developments,” she said.
Wanda James
James wants to see a certain percentage of new housing priced affordably and an expansion of low-cost loans for first responders and teachers. “Having home ownership in the communities that you’re serving helps make the community stronger,” she said.
TAX CUTS
Would you vote to continue the tax cuts passed by the Republican-led Congress and President Donald Trump when they expire in 2029?
Diana DeGette
“Absolutely not,” she said. The tax cuts in Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill are “adding a trillion dollars to our deficit and our debt and they’ve caused the greatest income inequity in our nation’s history.” DeGette said she would immediately repeal them and use the savings to pay for “healthcare, housing, student loan support and forgiveness, and to pay for things like childcare and food security for lower income individuals.”
Melat Kiros
“Absolutely not,” she said. The cuts have served “the ultra wealthy and corporations. We are desperately in need of those dollars to uplift the working class, and so I would not vote to keep those.”
Wanda James
“Of course not,” she said.
STUDENT DEBT
Do you support getting rid of student debt? If so, how would you do it?
Diana DeGette
DeGette said she supports loan forgiveness programs for those who work in public service and who are below a certain income level. “I don’t see why we should be forgiving debt for people who go to work at Wall Street law firms,” she said. “People who go to work, for example, at a public defender’s office, that’s a public interest job. They make less income, and we should look at student debt forgiveness programs for people in public interest.”
Melat Kiros
“Yes, we just have to eliminate all federal student debt, but that doesn’t address the problem of the rising costs of higher education in this country,” she said. “We need tuition-free public college.”
Wanda James
“Yes, I think balancing the budget on the backs of students is entirely wrong,” she said. “I think that education in America should be made as affordable as we can possibly do it. On top of that, we should be lowering the cost of tuition and fees for students anyway, for all public universities. I also believe in supporting Bernie Sanders’ bill, where a family of four making less than $100,000 should be able to attend a public higher education for free. I just think that that’s just really important to be able to make sure that we have an educated society.”
STOCK TRADE BAN
Do you support banning stock trading for members of Congress?
Diana DeGette
“100%,” she said. “I think it gives the appearance of impropriety when members of Congress own individual stocks. Even if they’re not doing anything wrong, it still looks bad.”
Melat Kiros
“Yes,” she said.
Wanda James
“100%,” she said.
LOBBYING BAN
Do you support banning former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists?
Diana DeGette
“Yes,” she said.
Melat Kiros
“Yes, a lifetime ban,” she said.
Wanda James
“Yes, I do, for a period of time,” she said.
TERM LIMITS
Should there be term limits for members of Congress?
Diana DeGette
“I do believe we have term limits already, it’s called elections,” she said. She said she also believes in public funding of campaigns.
Melat Kiros
“Yes, I think they should be — 18 years,” she said.
Wanda James
“100%, not just members of Congress, also for (The Supreme Court of the United States),” she said. “I don’t believe that anybody should have a government job for their entire lives.”
ISRAEL FUNDING
Do you support continued U.S. military funding for Israel? If so, should there be restrictions or conditions imposed on that funding?
Diana DeGette
“I’m going to have to look at the budget for next year,” she said. “This year I supported funding for the final payment for the 10-year contract for defensive spending, and I oppose U.S. funding for Israel for offensive weapons. I don’t think the U.S. should be paying for Israel to be bombing other countries, but I do think Israel has a right to defend itself with the iron dome.”
Melat Kiros
“No,” she said. “Right now we are witnessing a genocide taking place, and until that genocide has ended, and until there’s real material efforts for delivering aid to the people in that region and beginning reconstruction of that region, I don’t believe our aid should be sent, and in fact it is illegal under international law and our own American laws to aid in crimes against humanity.”
Wanda James
James described herself as “anti-war.” “I feel the same way about Israel that I do about all countries,” she said. “I don’t believe that military funding should just be blanket-given to any country or any ally. I absolutely do not believe that we should be funding wars for countries that go against our beliefs and our ideals of what it is that protects America. Diplomacy needs to be job one.”
IRAN WAR
Do you think it was a good idea for the U.S. to go to war with Iran? And how would you vote on a war powers resolution to end the U.S. bombing of Iran?
Diana DeGette
“I think it was a horrible idea, and on top of that, it was illegal,” she said. “We’ve had two or three war powers resolutions, and I have voted yes on all of them. I will oppose any funding for this illegal war.”
Melat Kiros
“No,” she said. “I would vote to take back the War Powers Act for Congress. It is in our Constitution that it requires a congressional act for us to go to war, and Donald Trump is without question trampling on our Constitution by engaging in this illegal one.”
Wanda James
“This was a massive, massive disaster, and should never have happened,” she said. “All this war has done is shown our immense weakness in diplomacy. No president, Democratic or Republican, should be able to take America to war without a vote of the representatives that were elected to represent the people.”
DATA CENTERS
Do you support data center development? If not, why? If so, under what circumstances?
Diana DeGette
“There needs to be federal standards on data centers. They need to have full disclosure of the environmental impacts that they’re going to have, which includes the impact on energy and water usage in their areas, and I believe that local government should have authority over approval of data centers,” she said.
Melat Kiros
Kiros said she supports Denver’s data center moratorium and a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez that would place a federal moratorium on data centers until federal labor and environmental regulations are in place. She said data center companies should use their own sources to generate renewable energy. “This is our leverage as government,” she said. “We take that leverage with these data center moratoriums and we force (tech companies) to the table, so they can agree to regulations that will protect our resources, protect our safety and our security, and ensure that we are not completely destroying our labor economy as well.”
Wanda James
James said data centers are often put near low-income communities that don’t have the ability to fight back. “I am in favor of looking at new forms of energy, which I think is the bigger issue behind the conversation behind data centers, and I am in favor of finding things that protect the environment and work with the environment, instead of using precious resources that we may or may not have, especially water, given what we’re getting ready to run into this summer,” she said.
A.I. REGULATION
Do you think Congress should pass a law regulating artificial intelligence? If yes, what should those regulations be?
Diana DeGette
“Artificial intelligence is here, but we need to make sure that it’s not used to violate Americans’ privacy rights and to take their sensitive data,” she said. “Congress is right now developing guardrails. I believe that we will be seeing bipartisan legislation within the next few months.”
Melat Kiros
Kiros said she supports data privacy limits on how AI companies can use personal data, and restrictions on how the U.S. military can use AI. She wants to see “global cooperation” on the regulation of AI.
Wanda James
“Of course, it has to be regulated for numerous reasons, but most importantly in protecting jobs and developing jobs at the same time. So I’m a big supporter of unions, labor work, labor workers, and we’ve got to make sure that American workers are always at the forefront of how we build and how we allow artificial intelligence to come out into the general populace,” she said. “It can be used to do really amazing things to help move us forward, and at the same token, it could be the thing that some people have warned that brings us back to disastrous possibilities.”
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