Jessica Killin, one of the Democrats running in Tuesday’s primary for the chance to challenge U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, joined with more than a dozen incumbent Democratic lawmakers and candidates this week signing on to a set of centrist principles they say align more closely with the party’s values — and voters — than what organizers characterize as “extremes on the left and on the right.”

The document, dubbed the “Promise to America,” sketches out a platform that embraces capitalism, public safety, fiscal responsibility, secure borders and national pride — while at the same time rejecting positions upheld by more left-leaning voices in the party, including a handful of democratic socialist candidates who won primaries and toppled Democratic incumbents in last week’s election in New York.

“America is stronger than our politics. Politics forces false choices between extremes on right and left. We reject them,” reads the pledge, which goes on to assert that its signers “are capitalist, not socialist,” “want safety, not lawlessness,” “believe government should solve problems, not create them,” and “are proud, not ashamed of America.”

Killin and others who signed the initiative said Thursday in an online news conference that moderate Democrats need to do a better job communicating their vision, particularly as the party’s left wing is making headlines by winning primaries in deep blue districts.

“They may be part of my party, but I don’t think they are the whole of the party,” Killin said, referring to candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. “They should not be the face of our party, and that’s why we need to be organized and clear in our vision, and that’s why the Promise to America is such a critical part of that.”

Killin added that “too many people” feel the American dream is out of reach.

“They feel frustrated and disaffected by the extremism, the tribalism, the chaos of our politics right now, and they don’t feel like public servants are actually working for the public good,” she said. “I think the principles that you’ve set forward here with the Promise to America are the principles that we need to actually deliver results for the American people.”

A former top White House official in the Biden administration, Killin is facing fellow Army veteran Joe Reagan, a local nonprofit head, in the congressional primary for the seat held by Crank, who is unopposed for the GOP nomination.

The 5th CD, which shares its boundaries nearly exactly with El Paso County, hasn’t ever elected a Democrat to Congress, but its changing voting patterns and Killin’s powerhouse fundraising — she’s outraised Crank since entering the race — prompted national Democrats to target the seat in this year’s midterms, for the first time in the district’s history.

Although the initiative and its sponsoring organization of the same name have been in the works for months — both debuted earlier this month at the avowedly centrist WelcomeFest in Washington — its authors said Thursday that this week’s primary wins by self-described socialists heightened the importance of staking out their positions.

“We want to make it very clear that those of us that are signers, we’re Democrats. We’re proud Democrats. We’ll always be Democrats,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, who was one of only two Democrats to flip a swing seat in 2024 at the same time President Donald Trump carried the district. The other was U.S. Rep. Adam Gray of California, who is leading the initiative along with Suozzi.

Suozzi said that fellow moderate Democrats are going to organize and “not gonna just wring our hands,” because, “we’re seeing a lot of results in the country from the far left and from the far right, and they’re organized.”

He added that the group plans to “build a movement,” including gathering signatures from another 20 Democratic congressional candidates, 200 state and local officials and 2,000 activists throughout the country.

Other incumbent House members who signed the document this week include U.S. Reps. Maggie Woodlander of New Hampshire, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, and Janelle Bynum of Oregon. In addition to Killin, candidates who added their names include Arizona’s Marlene Galán-Woods, Texas’ Bobby Pulido and North Carolina’s Jamie Ager and Paul Barringer.

A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed the group’s attempts to distance its signers from their party’s leftmost candidates.

“What started as the Socialist Squad in 2018 has turned into an army that has taken over the Democrat Party,” Mike Marinella, the NRCC’s national press secretary, told The Washington Post. “Every House Democrat will have to answer for the socialist agenda that’s now driving their party, and face the fact that their radical agenda will lose them elections.”

The Democratic Socialists of America mocked the endeavor Friday in a post on X.

“Thirteen Democrats in Congress signed onto a pledge to ‘reject socialism’ today,” the DSA’s official account said. “Combined, they’ve raked in a whopping $10,088,996 from the Israel lobby. Nothing moderate about that. Should we tally up their Big Tech donations next?”

Reagan, the Democrat facing Killin in the Colorado primary, told Colorado Politics that he wasn’t approached about signing the document but wouldn’t have, if he had been.

“I don’t think embracing ideological labels is what delivers for working people. Too often, candidates who call themselves centrists define themselves by what they’re against instead of presenting a clear vision for what they’re for,” he said in an email.

“Coloradans are looking for leaders who will build broad coalitions and focus on achievable, pragmatic solutions that improve people’s lives. That’s what I’m offering. I’m not running to serve party factions or corporate donors — I’m running to serve the people of Colorado, and to give them something to vote for, not just someone to vote against.”