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 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 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."
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 preceded 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.
"The fight is important to have," said Third Party co-founder Jim Kessler, a former staffer to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.
"It's important to push the Democratic Party back to the centre because we cannot win with a far-left candidate in a general election.
"We are a centre-right nation, and there are more conservatives in America than there are liberals … so the math is such that we just have to win a super-majority of moderates.
While socialism polls favourably among liberal voters, a New York Times/Siena poll this month found about half of Americans view it unfavourably.
Most DSA-backed candidates who won their primaries are in safe Democratic seats, and Kessler said candidates have seen success in swing seats where they are more appealing to independent or disillusioned Republican voters.
"A lot of the solutions on the far left are slogans; they're not really solutions," he said.
"There needs to be flesh on the bones, and they don't want to put the flesh on the bones because it opens them up to criticism."
But Kiros argues the US and the world are in precarious times and cannot afford another "do nothing Democratic administration".
"We have no choice but to fight for bold solutions, or else this democracy will not survive," she said.
"Voters are looking for anybody or any group that's offering ideas and solutions that can meet this moment right now.
"I think Democratic Socialists are the only ones that have done that in a meaningful way and that's why we're winning."
Republican President Donald Trump has leapt at the opportunity to attack the rising left faction of the Democrats.
"They call themselves Democratic socialist, but actually they're communists," he told the Republican midterm convention earlier this month.
He and other Republicans hope to paint them as a danger to the economy and country ahead of the November midterms, where Republicans risk losing control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
"If they win, the greatest legislative body in history will, for the first time ever, be controlled by a communist caucus," Trump said.
But in progressive Denver, and cities across the US, the movement is spreading.
Craig Skinner joined the local branch after watching Zohran Mamdani win the New York City mayoral election.
He felt inspired to "get off the couch" and "be part of something", so he joined Kiros's campaign and started volunteering.
"Our membership has nearly doubled since the beginning of the Melat campaign," he said.
Skinner argues Trump once made similar promises to the American people about lowering the cost of living and rooting out establishment politics, but failed to deliver.
"When you go to so many doors and hear so many people excited about what Denver DSA stands for and what Melat stands for, it's hard to say that's radical," Skinner said.
"It's policy that changes the way that people can interact with the economy, whether that's publicly financed campaigns or giving everybody healthcare.
"We're already paying so many taxes and [yet] some people aren't being taxed enough: the millionaires, the billionaires and the corporations in this country.
"That is a message that people get behind when you tell them."