Melat Kiros, born in Addis Ababa, is the first Gen Z woman elected to the US Congress

Denver — Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer born in Ethiopia, has won Colorado's 1st Congressional District, becoming the first Gen Z woman elected to the US Congress.

She took about 78% of the vote against the Republican Christy Peterson in the Denver-based seat. She is also the first Black woman Colorado has sent to Congress, and Denver's first new representative in about 30 years.

A visa lottery and a Denver childhood

Kiros was born in Addis Ababa to a family of Tigrayan origin. Her campaign says she was born weeks before her father was selected in the US Diversity Visa Lottery, and the family moved to Colorado when she was a baby. She grew up in Aurora, went to Washington College, and took her law degree at Notre Dame in 2022.

The firing that changed her course

She joined the international law firm Sidley Austin in New York. In 2023 she published a post criticising law firms for opposing pro-Palestine protests. When the firm asked her to take it down she refused, and she was fired. She has said her criticism is aimed at the Israeli state, not at Jewish people.

She came home to Colorado, enrolled in a PhD programme at the University of Colorado Denver and worked as a barista.

Taking on a 15-term incumbent

In July 2025, with no experience of elected office, she announced a challenge to Diana DeGette, who had held the seat since the 1990s. Backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, she ran on positions that include abolishing the immigration agency ICE and ending US military aid to Israel.

On 30 June she won the primary with a lead of about six points when the Associated Press called it. The November race was far easier, in a district that has not elected a Republican since 1970.

She heads to Washington in January.

Source: BBC via Yahoo News, Joint Center, Denverite, CPR News, Colorado Politics, Wikipedia, November 2026.