Super PACs Spend $1.3 Million to Protect Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado 1st District

The hum of the I-25 corridor is usually a background noise to folks commuting between Denver and Boulder. Last week, it was punctuated by a different kind of roar. Not engines, but digital ads.

A trio of super PACs just dumped $1.3 million into the Colorado’s 1st Congressional District primary. The cash is moving fast. It’s late June. The general election is months away, but the primary fight is getting ugly.

The target is Rep. Diana DeGette. The challenger is Melat Kiros.

DeGette has held this seat since 1996. She’s 68. She’s a veteran of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Kiros is 29. She’s a Democratic socialist. She’s pitching herself as a new voice for Denver.

The spending is an insurance policy. Mike Dino, a Denver-based Democratic strategist, put it plainly. He doesn’t think DeGette is in immediate danger of losing. He thinks the funds are just to keep her safe.

“I don’t think she’s in trouble so much as that it’s insurance money to make sure she doesn’t get in trouble,” Dino said.

It’s a pattern we’re seeing across the country. Insurgents are gaining momentum. Incumbents are paying up to stop them. But this time feels different. The effort is concerted. It’s monied. It’s aggressive.

The Mile High Accountability Project kicked things off on June 6. They spent $350,000 on digital ads. The message was simple: Kiros divides Denver Democrats.

The ads hit Kiros on three fronts. First, they claimed she recently moved to Denver. That’s misleading. Her family moved there when she was 11 months old. She grew up in the area. She left for college. She came back after a law firm fired her. The ad didn’t mention the return. It just implied she was an outsider.

Second, the ads attacked her stance on Israel. They labeled her statements as “laced with antisemitism.” DeGette’s campaign backed this up. It’s a potent charge in a diverse district.

Third, they tied her to Donald Trump. The ad said, “Donald Trump loves Democrats like Kiros.” It’s a classic swing-and-miss tactic, trying to pull a liberal into the conservative orbit. It’s confusing. It’s designed to stick.

Most of this $1.3 million comes from unknown sources. We don’t know who is writing the checks. We just know the capital is flowing. It’s going toward ads that attack Kiros. It’s not going toward ads that praise DeGette.

This is the clearest sign yet that DeGette faces a serious threat. She’s fended off primary challengers before. She’s survived them. But she’s never faced a foe with this level of financial backing behind her.

Kiros is running on a platform of new federal representation. She’s young. She’s progressive. She’s challenging the establishment. DeGette is arguing that her tenure makes her primed for leadership if Democrats take back the House in November. It’s a promise of power.

The voters in the 1st District are watching. They see the ads. They see the money. They know who is paying to protect their representative.

The short version? DeGette isn’t just running for re-election. She’s running to survive. And the bill for that survival is coming due.

The spending spree ends when the funds run out. Or when Kiros breaks through. We won’t know until November. But right now, the ink is still wet on the ads. The digital billboards are lit up. The message is clear: Don’t rock the boat.