The 2026 midterm season has so far been marked by the cost-of-living crisis and a desire to bring in a new guard of spunkier, younger politicians who will fight President Trump.
In Colorado’s First Congressional District, which includes Denver and the surrounding area, these two issues are top of mind. Democratic incumbent Diana DeGette, age 68, is up against entrepreneur Wanda James and attorney Melat Kiros, who has been alive for less time than DeGette has been in Congress (Kiros is 28 years old, and DeGette has represented the district for 29 years).
James is a University of Colorado regent, entrepreneur, and military veteran. She started the country’s first marijuana dispensary owned by a Black woman.
Some in the district have suggested that she and Kiros might split the anti-DeGette vote, handing the incumbent a victory. Despite having by far the lowest amount of cash on hand of the three candidates—around $55,000—James has argued that she’s well known in the district and still has a fighting chance.
Kiros, a first-time candidate backed by progressive organizations like Justice Democrats and the Colorado Working Families Party, has $120,000 on hand. The vast majority of her money (all but $5,000 of it) came from individual donors.
DeGette, meanwhile, has a whopping $636,000 in cash on hand. Just over $100,000 of that came from PAC donations.
All three candidates have pledged their support for Medicare for All. DeGette hopes to stand out by emphasizing her wealth of experience in Congress and her ability to call votes on the issues she supports.
Since the 2010 cycle, DeGette’s campaign committee has received a total of $555,765 from PACs associated with 30 different pharmaceutical companies.
To do that, DeGette is campaigning on a promise to finally take leadership of the Health Subcommittee, which she says will allow her to bring Medicare for All to a vote. She is currently the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee and expects to be its chair if Democrats win the majority in the House this November.
In an interview with Colorado Public Radio, DeGette flexed her progressive credentials, name-dropping Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I have a really crackerjack group of people who I’ve sort of hand selected to be on my committee, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” she said.
Despite her strong words on health care, DeGette has a long history of receiving campaign contributions from some of the same pharmaceutical companies that jack up the prices of medications. Nor, despite her long tenure, has she achieved the ambitious health care policy goals that she’s set.
Since the 2010 cycle, DeGette’s campaign committee has received a total of $555,765 from PACs associated with 30 different pharmaceutical companies. That’s over $100,000 more than Sen. Chuck Schumer has received from those sources in the same time interval.
The biggest pharmaceutical contributors to DeGette’s campaign committee have been Cencora/AmerisourceBergen, which has donated $50,500; Johnson & Johnson, which donated $48,000; and Amgen, which donated $43,000.
Despite the money she takes from these companies, DeGette is campaigning on fixing the rising cost of health care, including the cost of prescription drugs.
“Diana serves on the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she has been a driving force behind major national reforms—expanding access to health care, including fighting to lower prescription drug prices and protecting vital programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from partisan attacks,” a paragraph on her website reads.
DeGette is also the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, and says that if re-elected, she “will have the ability to bring legislation forward that can help us put Roe versus Wade into law.”
DeGette’s campaign did not return a request for comment about the pharmaceutical money she received.
In addition to her donations from pharma, DeGette has also received money from insurance companies or groups affiliated with the insurance industry, a surprising list of supporters from someone who promised to advance Medicare for All. Her campaign has received financial support from the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals PAC, the AFLAC PAC, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association PAC.
Julia Santos, the government relations director for National Nurses United, a major supporter of Medicare for All, gave a statement to the Prospect about DeGette:
“Pharmaceutical corporations, along with hospital and health insurance corporations, are deep-pocketed opponents of Medicare for All who will stop at nothing to prevent its passage because it poses an existential threat to their business models. While it’s great to see elected representatives cosponsor the bill, if they also accept political donations from pharmaceutical, hospital, and insurance corporations, they will need to answer the question: ‘whose side are you truly on?’ To win Medicare for All and finally end corporate control over our health care, candidates and elected officials must refuse to be bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical, hospital, and insurance industries.”
DeGette has represented the district since 1997 after serving in the state legislature and as a civil rights attorney. Despite winning 15 elections since then, DeGette only narrowly made the primary ballot this time around.
In March, candidates participated in the first district Democratic assembly, where 235 delegates voted on candidates to advance them to the primary ballot. Candidates needed 30 percent of the vote to advance, and DeGette eked by with about 33 percent, coming in second to Kiros, who received 67 percent of the vote. James got on the ballot by gathering signatures from voters, rather than by going through the assembly process.
Kiros described the start of her campaign as a “slow burn” that exploded after she dominated the assembly process.
“I think that sends a message to a lot of Denverites who maybe would have been fine with giving her another two years,” she told the Prospect. “[Voters witnessed] the gravity of how much she took it for granted, and how much she just expected to coast through, and I think that was really frustrating for a lot of folks.”
Kiros criticized DeGette’s receipt of pharmaceutical company money and its incongruence with her progressive policy platform.
“When we say: ‘look at all of these corrupt acts that Trump is engaging in,’ it rings hollow, because we also have corruption in our house,” Kiros said. “We can’t expect to make any gains on this agenda if we don’t clean up our own side of the aisle, and that’s why I think this primary process is so important. That’s why I’m challenging the Congresswoman.”
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