DEMOCRATIC socialist Melat Kiros has defeated veteran Congresswoman Diana DeGette in a Colorado primary election, in another win for progressive challengers across the United States.

Ms Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer turned doctoral student, is the latest candidate to rise from the Democratic Party’s left wing and beat Establishment-backed candidates. Her victory on Tuesday follows two self-described democratic socialists and a progressive winning primaries in New York last week.

With Colorado’s First Congressional District covering the Democrat stronghold of Denver, Ms Kiros is expected to win in November’s elections and reach the House of Representatives in January.

“We are winning from coast to coast,” she said to an ecstatic audience and the blast of air horns. “We are taking back our party and our country!”

There were mixed results for progressives in Tuesday’s other contests.

Senator John Hickenlooper fended off a primary challenge from Senator Julie Gonzales, a self-described “insurgent progressive,” but a smaller margin separated the two Democrats competing for seats in the US House of Representatives in the state’s sole swing district, where the candidate considered more progressive, state Representative Manny Rutinel, emerged victorious.