Colorado’s four Democratic and four Republican members of the U.S. House, by and large, represent their respective districts effectively. That is to say, credibly, thoughtfully and diligently, regardless of their party affiliation.

In other words, they’re more or less a good fit for their districts.

Last June’s Democratic primary election, however, could send someone to Washington from Colorado’s 1st Congressional District who is anything but a good fit. 

The primary’s winner in fact represents an affront — and an embarrassment — to much of the district as well as the entire state. 

Outspoken militant Melat Kiros, whose win made national news, already has left traditional Democrats and unaffliated voters reeling in Denver and across Colorado. It’s not only Kiros’ embrace of the make-believe economics of socialism that has even her party’s diehards on edge; it’s her unrelenting condemnations of Israel — and her refusal to distance herself and her campaign from rabid, repugnant antisemitism.

As reported Friday by The Gazette, unaffiliated candidate Shimon Blau — a Denver physician and political newcomer who became an overnight candidate of conscience — has qualified by petition for the November general election in CD 1. Election officials certified 1,918 of the 2,212 signatures gathered by Blau, handily surpassing the 1,500-signature requirement.

Blau says he was moved to run in part by the “antisemitic” rhetoric he has heard from Kiros and her supporters during the campaign. Describing himself as a political moderate, he also said he stepped forward because, “Some of her more radical, socialist ideas bother me.”

That could speak for a lot of Coloradans, including in CD 1.

Could the gut punch of Kiros’ largely unforeseen Democratic nomination — coupled with the unlikelihood of a GOP victory in a congressional district that hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1970 — give Blau as an independent candidate a fighting chance against Kiros in November?

Given the implications for Colorado’s representation in Congress, especially if Democrats take control of the U.S. House, the upcoming Nov. 3 general election in CD 1 arguably has become a race in which all of Colorado have a stake if not necessarily a vote.

Kiros’ June 30 victory over 15-term incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette is said to have been propelled in part by a socialist shockwave that has whipsawed the entire Democratic Party nationwide. Also contributing to the primary upset, in all likelihood, was a widely held perception that DeGette simply had been in office too long, and it was time for a change.

Kiros evidently was able to leverage that discontent into a springboard for herself in a primary in which only a third of the electorate participated in the first place. 

All of which is to say her decisive defeat of DeGette doesn’t necessarily suggest broad support for her in November.

As we noted here recently, Denver is home to one of the longest-standing Jewish communities in the Western U.S. That community is now alarmed, deeply disillusioned — and poised to push back.

Alongside them are the many politically moderate 1st Congressional District voters of every creed, culture, race and political affiliation who rightly will step back in revulsion at what Kiros is peddling.

Blau’s candidacy may not be that long of a shot. The fact he already offers Denver and particularly Denver Democrats a meaningful alternative says a lot about how far their party has veered off course — and how voters of every political stripe now could rescue CD 1.