Melat Kiros knows she doesn't fit the mould of a typical member of the US Congress.
The Ethiopian-born Democratic Socialist is on track to become the first gen Z woman to enter Congress, hoping to ride a wave of anti-establishment sentiment on the American left.
"Americans right now are reckoning with the fact that things have been broken for quite a while," she told the ABC.
"We've found that the mainstream ideas coming out of both parties have failed." Kiros, 29, is vying for a safe Democratic seat in Denver, Colorado, after winning a primary election to bump the incumbent of nearly three decades from the Democrats' ticket.
Before her run in politics, she was fired from her job as a corporate lawyer.
In 2023, she wrote an open letter criticising the stance numerous US law firms, including her own, took in support of Israel after the Hamas terrorist attacks.
In her post, she condemned antisemitism, calling it "the longest hatred", but argued it should not be conflated "with the geopolitical question of Israel's legitimacy".
She was asked to take it down and refused.
Her criticism of the Israeli government over the Gaza war now forms a key part of her campaign.
Like many Democratic Socialists, she is calling for a total arms embargo on the country: a position that has angered "moderate" elements of the party and contributed to their widening split with "progressives".
"Our tax dollars are actively participating in this," Kiros said of Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
"We have the ability to end the violence right now if only we just end our tax dollars that are being sent there." She also wants to make dramatic cuts to defence spending and instead put money towards universal healthcare, childcare and expanding public housing.
"This notion that what we're calling for is extreme is detached from reality [when] all these developed nations that are our peers already have a lot of these programs." Factional fight Kiros is one of several candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which have had success in recent Democrat primary races ahead of the midterm elections.
The organisation, whose policies include higher taxes on the wealthy and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is proving popular on the left.
A recent CBS-YouGov poll found 71 per cent of participants who identified as liberal voters held favourable views on socialism.
But the rise of the progressive left has sparked a civil war within the Democratic Party as it fights over its future direction.
Centrist Democrat group Third Way has launched a $US15 million ($21 million) campaign to discredit democratic socialism within the party.
