What We Know About Melat Kiros, First Gen Z Woman in Congress

Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian-born lawyer and doctoral student from Colorado, became the first Generation Z woman elected to the US House on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera.

Who is Melat Kiros?

Kiros is a Denver-area Democrat who describes herself as a democratic socialist. Al Jazeera reports she beat 30-year incumbent Representative Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary earlier this year — a first-time candidate unseating a three-decade House member. After that primary win, Kiros told supporters she was taking the fight to "Donald Trump and the oligarchy," and listed her priorities as abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, passing Medicare for All, and ending what she called the "genocide in Palestine," per the outlet. She is now the second Gen Z member of the House, following Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida, who was first elected in 2022.

How many Gen Z candidates ran for Congress in 2026?

Of 117 Generation Z candidates who ran for Congress this cycle, 24 won their primaries and reached Tuesday's general-election ballot, according to the organization Future Caucus, cited by Al Jazeera. That figure covers candidates born after 1996, the generational cutoff Future Caucus and most demographers use.

How did young voters actually vote in the midterms?

An Associated Press voter poll, reported by Al Jazeera, found about 7 in 10 voters under 30 nationally backed the Democratic candidate in their local House race, versus about 3 in 10 who backed the Republican. That marks a sharp reversal from 2024, when the AP poll found the youngest voters were roughly split between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Most first-time midterm voters, who tend to be younger, also broke for Democrats, Al Jazeera reports. Both groups, however, remained a small slice of the overall electorate — only about 1 in 10 voters in the 2026 national electorate were under 30, which limited how much the under-30 shift moved the national result.

Why did young voters shift toward Democrats?

The AP poll found about half of voters under 30 said they were "angry" about the direction of the country, compared with roughly one-third of voters 65 and older, according to Al Jazeera's reporting. About 6 in 10 voters under 30 said one reason for their House vote was to express opposition to Trump, versus about half of voters 65 and older. Al Jazeera does not report comparable anger or opposition figures for other age brackets beyond those cited.

What to watch

• Whether Kiros and Frost expand a formal Gen Z bloc inside the House Democratic caucus, and how Future Caucus tracks additional Gen Z members elected in 2026 beyond the 24 primary winners it counted.
• Whether the under-30 Democratic swing documented in the AP voter poll holds into the 2028 presidential cycle or reverts, given the group's small share of the 2026 electorate.
• How Kiros's stated positions — ending ICE, Medicare for All, and her characterization of the situation in Gaza — are received by House Democratic leadership as she takes office.