U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet confirmed to The Denver Publish that he’ll search the Colorado governor’s workplace in 2026 — becoming a member of an unsettled Democratic discipline and probably opening up a coveted Senate seat in an more and more blue state.
He plans to make his formal announcement Friday morning at a rally in Denver’s Metropolis Park. In an interview beforehand, Bennet stated he hoped to convey his federal legislative expertise to his dwelling state’s government department and assist Colorado navigate potential cuts and different uncertainty throughout President Donald Trump’s second administration.
“I’m deeply, deeply, profoundly frightened about Donald Trump and the wrecking ball he has aimed toward our democracy and our financial system,” Bennet stated, noting potential cuts to Medicaid and different federal applications. He argued that financial uncertainty has fueled fashionable politics.
However, he added, “as we’re coping with that — as we’re preventing all the pieces that’s fallacious with the present administration — it’s essential for us to create higher options for our shared challenges in Colorado. We are able to forge a greater politics than we see in D.C. proper now.”
Bennet has served within the Senate since 2009, when he was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazar when Salazar joined the Obama administration. He’s since received election to the seat 3 times — and by a bigger margin in every election. In 2022, Bennet’s most up-to-date election bid, he defeated development firm proprietor Joe O’Dea, the Republican nominee, with practically 56% of the vote.
Now, Bennet stated, he feels he’d be “higher located because the governor to assist us present a view of what this future goes to appear like, from the state of Colorado, than I’d be capable to do from (Washington).”
Bennet’s title recognition and lengthy historical past in Colorado politics — and the political reshuffling that an open Senate seat would set in movement, ought to he win subsequent yr — might assist clear the sector of different main potential Democratic candidates.
Gov. Jared Polis, like the remainder of Colorado’s constitutional officers, is term-limited and can’t search reelection in 2026.
Up to now, Lawyer Common Phil Weiser is the one different distinguished Democrat to launch an official bid for governor, coming into the race in January. His marketing campaign introduced he raised greater than $1.9 million via the tip of March, a sum that features a switch of practically $158,000 from his legal professional common marketing campaign. Salazar additionally has publicly mulled a bid.
Coloradans haven’t elected a Republican to steer the state since 2002, and the state has solely trended bluer during the last decade.
In an announcement Thursday, shortly after a number of media shops reported Bennet would search the workplace, Weiser stated he’d spent the previous six years serving “Colorado because the Individuals’s Lawyer,” whereas Bennet was working in Washington. However he additionally softened any jabs at Bennet, including: “Now greater than ever, we want skilled Democratic leaders in Washington.”
“We should defend Colorado and oppose Trump’s unlawful actions, not appease him,” Weiser stated. “I’m the fighter Colorado wants as our subsequent governor. Two years in the past, the voters despatched Sen. Bennet again to D.C. as a result of we believed he can be there for us it doesn’t matter what — particularly in traditionally harmful moments just like the one we at present face.”
Amongst different long-rumored candidates for governor, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse has as a substitute endorsed Bennet, whereas Secretary of State Jena Griswold launched a bid for legal professional common.
On the Republican aspect, state Sen. Mark Baisley, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell have launched campaigns.
The first elections for the workplace might be in summer season 2026 and the overall election might be held that November.
Bennet says he’s open to TABOR reform
Bennet’s bid highlights the round nature of Colorado politics. He served as John Hickenlooper’s chief of workers when Hickenlooper was Denver mayor within the early 2000s. Not lengthy after Gov. Invoice Ritter appointed Bennet to the Senate seat, Hickenlooper received the 2010 gubernatorial election. Hickenlooper, after two phrases as governor, joined Bennet within the Senate after profitable election in 2020.
Each males ran unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency in 2020. Now, they may flip-flop the roles they held for a lot of the 2010s.
Bennet praised Polis in an interview, significantly his signature free full-day kindergarten program, however added that “no governor can do all of it.”
Housing, well being care and psychological well being care stay challenges for the state, Bennet stated. He additionally acknowledged the state’s ongoing funds constraints. Lawmakers this week moved nearer to closing a funds with $1.2 billion in cuts as prices collided with the spending cap set by the Taxpayer’s Invoice of Rights, or TABOR.
State lawmakers have floated some concepts to regulate TABOR, comparable to one other reset of the components used to set the cap or an exemption of sure spending, like Medicaid, from it. Bennet didn’t endorse a particular change however stated, “I’m positive (TABOR) might be a part of any marketing campaign,” together with his.
“We face huge funds challenges as a state, and TABOR is clearly a part of that drawback,” Bennet stated. “We’ve bought to have a complete dialogue about what we should always do and the way TABOR must be reformed.”
Along with electoral politics, Bennet has served because the superintendent of Denver Public Faculties — a job that proved formative for one in every of his marquee congressional victories. As a part of the 2021 stimulus invoice, Bennet received inclusion of an enormous enlargement of the federal little one tax credit score, within the type of $300 month-to-month checks to oldsters.
These solely endured for a yr — however the coverage grew to become one thing of a white whale for him after it minimize little one poverty in half, but wasn’t renewed by Congress. He launched a brand new model of it earlier this week, joined by practically all the Democratic caucus.
Current strategy to Trump
When President Donald Trump took workplace for a second time period in January, Bennet struck a extra collaborative tone than a few of his Democratic colleagues. He’s tied for eighth amongst Democrats when it comes to essentially the most votes forged in favor of Trump’s nominees, in accordance with a tracker by The New York Instances.
However he’s additionally spoken out in opposition to Trump and Elon Musk — the world’s richest man and chief financier of Trump’s profitable reelection bid — together with by accusing them of “wanton destruction” of the federal government in a current interview with Colorado Public Radio.
Within the new interview with The Publish, Bennet highlighted his fights in opposition to a few of Trump’s extra controversial appointments, like Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in addition to fights for the expanded little one tax credit score.
“All of us have a shared battle,” Bennet stated. “That is a kind of actually essential moments in American historical past, the place it actually issues how we come out on the opposite aspect. And I believe Colorado is able to lead all 50 states, and I sit up for having the ability to assist information that as the following governor of the state of Colorado.”
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