On Tuesday night, socialists claimed another incumbent primary victory when Melat Kiros beat incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic Primary in Colorado’s 1st district.As if to illustrate how much the moment represents generational change, DeGette first came to Congress the year that Kiros was born.It’s just the latest in a wave of left-wing insurgent challenges. A week earlier to the day, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s three endorsed candidates won their primaries in the Big Apple. Two of them knocked off incumbents: Brad Lander beat Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th district while Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Rep. Adriano Espaillat and another Mamdani-endorsed candidate, Claire Valdez, came seemingly out of nowhere to beat Antonio Reynoso, the hand-chosen successor to Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.). In the Capitol Tuesday, during the first round of votes in the House, Velázquez and Espaillat, two former power players, took the elevator and conversed. It was not clear what they were speaking about, but one thing was crystal clear — each one’s power had been usurped by the Democratic socialist mayor of New York. Democratic congressional candidate Melat Kiros speaks to cheering supporters after she won the Democratic nomination in Denver Tuesday night. (AP)But Kiros’ victory is different; the Mile High City is not Mamdani’s New York. There is no Commie Corridor. This was an old-fashioned desire by voters to see new leadership. And in Pennsylvania, Chris Rabb won the open primary for Pennsylvania’s 3rd district in May, thanks in part to an endorsement by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).There are plenty of parallels to that era and today, and not just because Kiros, a barista and attorney, beat a long-time entrenched incumbent in much the same way that AOC, a democratic socialist and bartender, took out the chairman of the House Democratic caucus in 2018. She came to Washington flanked by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who formed what would become “the Squad” of progressives in Congress. And just like back then, Republicans hope to paint Democrats in swing districts with the same socialist brush from these deep-blue districts.Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Independent that the most important quality for any race is candidate quality and whether someone fits their district.“And that's why we have the advantage, because we have really good candidates that fit their districts, and the Democrats have had these crazy primaries where they've all tried to out-Mamdani each other, and they’ve ended up with extreme candidates,” he said. Rep. Diana DeGette, pictured at Care advocates' 24-hour vigil at the U.S. Capitol in 2025, was beaten in her primary reelection bid Tuesday (Getty)This was also on full display during House Republican leadership’s press conference. During that time, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) highlighted a now-deleted tweet from Avilia Chevalier saying she used the U.S. flag as a napkin. “That's who the Democratic Party is using the American flag to wipe their greasy little hands with,” she said. Speaker Mike Johnson echoed the sentiment. “They want to tear America down, they want to tear down Western civilization, and it's not going to happen on our watch,” Johnson said. That creates quite a quandary for Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. If he had his druthers, reporters would be asking him about Manny Rutinel, the Democratic nominee in Colorado’s 8th district who stands a good chance to beat freshman Republican Rep. Gave Evans. When he told reporters that Republicans were engaged in a “civil war,” The Independent asked him if Democrats were in a similar one on Tuesday before the Kiros race. Republicans seen an opportunity in highlighting the past statements by candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier ahead of the midterms. (AFP/Getty)“I will continue to strongly support every single House Democratic incumbent,” Jeffries said before DeGette’s loss. “ I think she's run a very compelling race, and now it's in the hands of the voters. I stand behind her 110 percent.”Of course, Republicans bear the standard for President Donald Trump — and he looms large over every race for them, and as a bogeyman for Democrats.Johnson and the Republicans also have little room to talk about sane governance given that just hours later, the House adjourned because of a revolt from conservatives like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna who wanted to attach the SAVE America Act, Trump’s proposed legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote, to the annual defense bill. And Ocasio-Cortez put it even more bluntly to The Independent. “I think that the year I won, we also picked up 40 Democratic seats in the house, and that included in a large terrain of swing districts,” she said. And many of those moderates and mainstream Democrats want Ocasio-Cortez as a surrogate. She campaigned for Kamala Harris in 2024 in the heavily Hispanic Nevada and she sent out fundraiser emails for the moderate Abigail Spanberger, a former critic of Ocasio-Cortez, during Spanberger’s run for governor of Virginia.Incidentally, Ocasio-Cortez refrained from endorsing any primary challengers this go-around. But her decision ignited the socialist insurgency.