Source: CPR
Rep. Diana DeGette has been in Congress for nearly three decades, representing the city of Denver.
This year, she says the stakes are especially high — and voters are especially energized — amid President Donald Trump’s second term. But the election isn’t just about Republicans. Establishment Democrats like DeGette are also trying to fend off challengers.
DeGette faces two other candidates, Wanda James and Melat Kiros, in one of the most contentious reelection campaigns of her career.
“This year, we have chaos because of Donald Trump in our country, and voters are really, really concerned and worried. They want to elect people who are going to fight back against Donald Trump, and also people who are going to address the affordability crisis, healthcare, prescription drug costs now with the war in Iran, gasoline prices and fuel prices,” DeGette told Colorado Matters Senior Host Ryan Warner. “So there’s a mood in the country right now that is unsettled.”
The 29-year congressional incumbent says her reelection would be important for Democrats. DeGette is the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. DeGette is also the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus.
She considers herself progressive, and says she would continue to work with people like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on issues including healthcare, reproductive rights and affordability.
DeGette has represented Colorado’s 1st Congressional District since 1997. Before her time in Congress, she served in the state legislature for two years and was an employment and civil rights attorney.
DeGette spoke with Colorado Matters about the state of democracy in the U.S., the cost of living and her rank as a seasoned Democrat.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ryan Warner: You became a member of Congress in 1997, making this your 16th primary. How is this one different, if at all?
Diana DeGette: Well, of course, this year we have chaos because of Donald Trump in our country, and voters are really, really concerned and worried. They want to elect people who are going to fight back against Donald Trump and also people who are going to address the affordability crisis, healthcare, prescription drug costs, now with the war in Iran, gasoline prices and fuel prices. So there’s a mood in the country right now that is unsettled.
Warner: And how does that shape the race? Because I’m interested in how this is different from past makeups of primaries.
DeGette: Well, I think that what the voters in the First Congressional District want to know, and this is true of voters everywhere, who is going to fight for them and who’s going to fight against Donald Trump in Congress, and they also want to know who has the power to do it. So I’m talking to the voters about how my power in Congress, I’m the ranking Democrat on the Health Subcommittee, next year when we win the majority, I’ll be the chair of that subcommittee. I’ll have a gavel and I will be able to actually bring Medicare for All single payer healthcare system for a vote. I’ll be able to craft that as the chair of that committee. Also as the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, I will have the ability to bring legislation forward that can help us put Roe versus Wade into law. So things like leadership like that, that’s what I’m talking to the voters of the First Congressional District about.
Warner: You only narrowly made the primary ballot. Has that happened before?
DeGette: Well, so this year what happened you had a very enthusiastic group of people for one of my opponents, and they helped propel her to the primary ballot. And I say good for them, but now really I’m talking to the hundreds of thousands of people in the First Congressional District who will vote in the Democratic primary. And frankly, that was our plan all along because we know what the atmosphere is like in this country, and we know that people are looking for members of Congress who will show leadership.
Kevin J. Beaty/DenveriteU.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. May 5, 2026.
Warner: Let’s go deeper into the cost of living. Obviously, that encompasses a lot. Housing, childcare, food, gas. You invoked Medicare for All. To a Democrat who looks at a tenure of some 30 years and says, “Why hasn’t this happened before? More meaningful healthcare reform.” What do you say?
DeGette: Well, we have had meaningful healthcare reform. I was part of the effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, which gave millions of Americans healthcare for the first time in their lives. And just this last year, I was leading the fight against the Medicaid cuts that are going to take maybe 15 million people in this country off of Medicaid. But what has happened over the last number of years is healthcare, prescription drugs, but also healthcare in general, insurance has just started to go up and up and up. Of course, this was made worse when the Republicans in Congress and President Trump refused to extend the tax credits for millions of Americans. So now they can’t even afford to go on the exchange. It’s becoming more and more apparent to Americans that we need to cap medical costs by moving towards a single payer system. And since I’ve been on the Health Subcommittee and the parent committee, Energy and Commerce for my entire time, I will finally be in a position where I will have the gavel and I’ll be able to set the agenda.
Warner: Will Medicare for All be a requirement for every American? Or an option?
DeGette: Well, what we’ll have to do once we get the majority, and I hope we’ll get the Senate majority too, we’ll have to have a broad range of hearings bringing every stakeholder group in and talking about how we get to a system where everybody can get the medical care that they need. I have a really crackerjack group of people who I’ve sort of hand selected to be on my committee, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some other really great newer members who I’m already talking to about how we can begin to craft this. So in the next session of Congress, we can really take a deep dive. I don’t need to tell you that the Republicans who are in charge right now are doing virtually nothing to address the cost of healthcare or the high cost of prescription drugs. Gasoline is through the roof and Donald Trump just pooh-poohs it. He says, “Oh, affordability. That’s just a bad word.” But in fact, it’s something that people in the First Congressional District are seeing every day, and it’s going to take a tough effort to deal with it.
Warner: It’s interesting, of all of the members of Congress you could have pointed to, you pointed to AOC. Is that Diana DeGette saying, Hey, look at me as a progressive?
DeGette: Well, I’ve always been progressive and I’ve worked with people from across the spectrum, but also from across the aisle. But my core values have always been progressive. I’ve been a member of the progressive caucus. I’ll give you an example. A lot of us are saying defund and dismantle ICE. Get rid of ICE because it’s a rogue agency. It has become a domestic military agency with masks, rampaging around our streets going after American citizens. I didn’t just come to that view like last year. I actually voted against the Department of Homeland Security when it was established because I was afraid having this big monolithic security agency targeted at U.S. citizens would turn into something like a domestic military force, which is exactly what has happened here.
Warner: This is in the post 9/11 era.
DeGette: That’s right.
Fundraising numbers are in and incumbents continue to bring in the dough
Warner: Well, we could go in any number of directions. How about Iran, which you’ve invoked a few times. The war deeply unpopular. Voters may think, I don’t feel like I have a lot of power in this situation. I have the power to change my representative. What would you tell them?
DeGette: Well, I mean, the Democrats in Congress have been fighting hard against this illegal war. The war was illegal from the beginning because Donald Trump never came to Congress to get approval. We have been fighting. We have brought up several times war power resolutions. We brought it to the floor under a privileged resolution, a procedural way, and we almost passed it because some of the Republicans voted for us. So we keep pushing hard and fighting hard. We didn’t just bring it up once and say, “Oh, well.” We keep bringing it up to point out that this is an illegal war. It is now 60 days. And so if there’s no argument that this war is legal, that Donald Trump had these authorities. We’re going to keep pushing hard to stop it. But the next thing that’s going to happen is they’re going to come to Congress and ask for spending.
It’s almost a billion dollars a day for this illegal war. We are not going to allow that money to come forward. And by the way, in Donald Trump’s budget that he just sent to Congress, he has cuts. He proposes cuts for housing, for student loan repayments. He proposes cuts for spending for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s and diabetes at the National Institutes of Health. And then at the same time, he proposes huge increases in spending for the Department of Defense. That’s insane. So people like me are already pushing back against that. We had RFK Jr. in front of my subcommittee, my Health Subcommittee, and I led the fight against all of the cuts that they want to make, and we’re going to continue to do that. I think that we’re going to be able to really shape this.
Warner: With the power of the purse strings?
DeGette: With the power of the purse strings. And even though we don’t have the gavels, the American public is with us on this defense spending.
Warner: What is the right level of federal immigration enforcement in your mind, Diana DeGette?
DeGette: So we need to have a comprehensive immigration policy. I have felt that way for a long time. What that means is for people who have been here for a long time and who have been following the laws, they’ve actually been paying taxes even though they don’t get anything back because they’re not eligible for federal benefits, they should be given an opportunity to apply for permanent status, either citizenship or getting a green card or something. And their kids, the DACA recipients, should be able to become U.S. citizens. And then we need to look at the way we have our visa system set up so that workers who just want to come in and work, whether it’s high tech, whether it’s in agriculture or other important industries, should be able to go back and forth legally and not have to do that. I thought that for many, many years, and I’ve been fighting for that.
I mean, what Donald Trump has been doing is inhumane and immoral, and one of the things I’ve really focused on, is the kids because my committee, the Health Subcommittee of Energy and Commerce that I’m the ranking member, we have jurisdiction over HHS, and they’re the ones that are supposed to be taking care of these kids. You might remember under the first Trump administration when they separated the kids from their families and they took them away. I led a delegation to the border, and I also then led some oversight investigations calling out the Trump administration. The result of that was eventually most of those kids were reunited with their families, and frankly, were still trying to find some whose parents went back to the home country. So there’s a lot to unpack with immigration, but basically it’s not American to do what Donald Trump has been doing to these populations.
Warner: You are still trying to repatriate kids with their families?
DeGette: So most of the kids who got separated by the Trump administration, when they took them away, they didn’t have any identification of those kids. And this is what we found out during our investigation. So we called it out, we pushed hard on HHS and they began to repatriate it. We were able to do most of that under the Biden administration. When President Biden came in, we were able to find those kids’ parents, but there are still a few of those kids, the most heartbreaking situation, their parents either were deported to the home countries or something happened, there’s still a few kids. They never did find the parents. It almost makes me cry to this day to think that that’s what our country did to them.
Warner: This is a matter more of state policy. but you said that folks illegally in the country don’t receive federal benefits. In Colorado, they have women and children receive Medicaid, and that has driven up the cost of Medicaid in Colorado. So just a fact check there in a little context.
DeGette: So what I will tell you is with the budget crisis that was caused in Colorado by the Republican’s Big Bad Bill, HR-1, and the cuts that they had to Medicaid, the state is having to limit some of those Medicaid services to women and children. But I would argue we should be giving federal Medicaid to everybody no matter what their status is, particularly women and children, because it’s a lot cheaper to give people healthcare for wellness and for prevention, I don’t care who it is, before they get sick, rather than having them go to the emergency room where they have to be treated after they get sick.
Warner: Diana DeGette, are you the right candidate for a voter who thinks the war in Gaza is genocidal?
DeGette: So what I have said is it is deeply horrifying what happened in Gaza and what happened throughout that. Any innocent person who is killed in a war like this, it’s a tragedy. And now what we need to do is we need to make sure we have maximum aid in Gaza and throughout the region to help rebuild Gaza and to help those families there. Humanitarian aid has to be a top priority of the United States.
Warner: Does the United States have in Israel a willing partner in that goal?
DeGette: Well, I don’t think that Israel has been forthcoming enough with the aid. It looks like now there is more aid coming in, and I am checking this every day, but I’m also checking the Trump budget to make sure we have enough USAID going into Gaza to rebuild it and to help stabilize that region.
Warner: And do we in your mind?
DeGette: We’re not in his budget, I don’t think we do, but I think that as it works its way through, the Democrats are going to make sure that we do.
Warner: Is there any change that you’d make to U.S. support for Israel financially?
DeGette: What I have said is that Israel, I believe in a two-state solution. I believe Israel should have a nation, and I believe Palestine should have a nation, and I believe we need to move towards that solution. I believe Israel has a right to defend itself. I saw a video recently of missiles coming into Tel Aviv from another country, I think Lebanon and the Iron Dome was able to shoot those down. So that’s defensive weapons, but I feel strongly we should not be giving offensive weapons to Israel and in fact, I voted against that.
Warner: The average life expectancy around the time of the Founding Fathers was between 35 and 38. You have served almost that long in Congress, and I want to know if you think a tenure like yours is what the Founding Fathers envisioned.
DeGette: So what I have to say is that there is a level of experience in fighting for our principles that we need to have in Congress. And as I said, I now have the power. When we take the majority, I will be the chair of one of the most influential subcommittees in Congress. It took 30 years to get to that point because of the seniority system. We can talk about that system another day, but that’s the system. So I will have a gavel. I will have subpoena power. I will be able to haul RFK Jr. and subpoena documents. I’ll be able to get all of that in, and I will have the power to be able to address the high cost of healthcare, the high cost of prescription drugs. And also though, it’s important that we have people with that level of experience and power and leadership.
At the same time, we need to bring new members in and we need to have people with new ideas who are going to work as part of the team, who will be the next generation of leaderships. That’s why I work with people like AOC and a number of other junior members to bring them along. There’s several great members on my subcommittee who I’ve sort of helped handpick to be on the Health Subcommittee, Jake Auchincloss from Massachusetts and a number of other people who are really great new members, but you kind of need both. If you have a whole bunch of people who just got there, they won’t even be on those committees, much less have the power. I like to tell a story when the Democrats took the majority the last time, and when the Dobbs decision came down, that was the one that overturned Roe versus Wade, I called Nancy Pelosi the next day on her cell phone because I’m the chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus. I called Nancy and I said, “Nancy, next week I want you to put the bill that reinstates Roe versus Wade nationally on the floor, and I will guarantee you I have the votes to pass it.” She said, “Okay, Diana.” And she did. And we passed it through the House two times. Now what I’m trying to do, I will be able to do that when we take the majority in the House. We have to figure out how to get it through the Senate, and I’m working with my colleagues in the Senate figuring out how to do that. A brand new member of Congress may feel passionately about reproductive freedoms, but I’m going to guarantee you they’re not going to be able to call the speaker and tell ’em to put a bill like that on the floor.
Warner: The idea here is that Democrats regain control of the House, and as you’ve said, possibly the U.S. Senate. Let’s imagine a world where that doesn’t occur. Why is Diana DeGette the right representative to stand up to whatever’s next?
DeGette: Well, what I’m going to plan on doing is retaking the majority, and frankly, most of my Republican colleagues think we’re going to too, because some of them have already been coming to me and asking me to bring their bills up when I’m the chair of the subcommittee. But if God forbid we don’t take back the majority, then I will continue to work for the good of my constituents in a bipartisan way. For example, the last bill that President Obama signed was my 21st Century Cures Bill. I did this with a Republican from Michigan, and we restructured the whole way we do biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and then the way we do drug and device approval at the FDA to get cures faster to patients, and frankly, the authorities that we came up with in 21st Century Cures were what helped them get the approvals for the COVID vaccine. So there’s a lot of things that can happen in a bipartisan way, but I believe that members of Congress like me, we need to have core values of standing up against injustice, standing up against bullies like Donald Trump, but then being able to go find common ground across the aisle like if we’re dealing with healthcare or something like that.
