Michael Bennet enters the Court of the Governor of Colorado, looking for democratic names

Senator American Michael Bennet Will look for the Governor’s office of Colorado In 2026, joining an unstable democratic field and potentially opening a seat in the coveted Senate in an increasingly blue state.

Bennet, 60, made his official announcement on Friday morning in the Denver municipal park – becoming a political analyst said: “Immediately the favorite” in the race. He confirmed his candidacy for the Denver Post beforehand, saying in an interview that he hoped to bring his federal legislative experience to his executive power of his original state and help Colorado navigate potential cuts and other uncertainty during the second administration of President Donald Trump.

“I am deeply, deeply, deeply worried about Donald Trump and the demolition ball he targeted to our democracy and our economy,” said Bennet in the interview, noting potential cups in Medicaid and other federal programs. He argued that economic uncertainty has fueled modern politics.

Michael Bennet: I run for the governor because Washington DC is too broken to meet the needs of Colorado

But, he added, “as we are dealing with this – as we fight everything that does not go with the current administration – it is important for us to create better solutions for our shared challenges in Colorado. We can forge a better policy that we do not see at DC at the moment.”

He was joined Friday morning by a multitude of elected officials from Colorado – including American representatives Jason Crow and Joe Neguse, the mayor of Denver Mike Johnston and the former Wellington Webb – and dozens of supporters.

Bennet has sat in the Senate since 2009, when he was appointed to fill the vacant seat by Ken Salazar when Salazar joined the Obama administration. He has since won the elections at the headquarters three times – and by a larger margin in each election, collecting more recently almost 56% of the votes in 2022. He would be re -elected in 2028.

But now, said Bennet, he believes that he would be “better located as governor to help us give an view of what this future will look like, from the state of Colorado, which I could not do (Washington).”

During his speech on Friday morning, Bennet underlined the need to reduce costs and increase the affordability of health care and housing in particular.

Economic despair – people who are worried about staying at home and raising their children in Colorado – have led some voters to make ballots for Trump’s “chaos”, said Bennet. Improving Colorado will make it “an example of the rest of the country on how to fight Trump and how to drive a stake through Trumpism,” he said.

Bennet joins Weiser in democratic primary

Recognition of the name of Bennet and the long history in Colorado’s policy – and the political reshuffle that a seat open to the Senate is triggered, if he wins next year – could help identify the field of other major potential Democratic candidates. Bennet plans to stay in the Senate during the governors’ campaign.

If he wins, he said, he “filled my responsibility” under the law of the State and the Constitution and would appoint his successor, rather than resign earlier so that Governor Jared Polis can fill the post.

Polis, like the rest of the constitutional officers of Colorado, is limited in the long term and cannot request a re -election in 2026.

So far, Attorney General Phil Weiser is the only other eminent democrat to launch an official offer for the governor, entering the race in January. His campaign announced that he had raised more than $ 1.9 million until the end of March, a sum which includes a transfer of nearly $ 158,000 in his general procurement campaign.

Salazar too has publicly reflected an offer; Friday morning, he published a statement renting both Weiser and Bennet without shedding light on his own intentions.

Coloradans have not elected Republican to direct the State since 2002, and the state tends only blur in the last decade.

In a statement Thursday, shortly after several media Reported Bennet would look for the officeWeiser said that he had spent the last six years serving “Colorado as a lawyer for the people”, while Bennet worked in Washington. But he also softened Bennet every time, adding: “Now more than ever, we need experienced democratic leaders in Washington.”

“We have to protect Colorado and oppose Trump’s illegal actions, not soothing it,” said Weiser. “I am the fighter in Colorado as the next governor. Two years ago, the voters returned Senator Bennet to DC because we thought he would be there for us whatever happens – especially in historically dangerous moments like the one we are currently confronted.”

Bennet, in return, said that Weiser “was a great attorney general and was a large civil servant” and a “great friend”.

But Bennet highlighted his own “fairly unique experience” in the Senate, the public schools in Denver and the mayor of Denver as higher qualifications. Before entering politics, he worked as a lawyer and then in business For the billionaire from Colorado Phil Anschutz.

Among other long -term candidates for the governor, Negus has rather approved Bennet, while Secretary of State Jena Griswold launched an offer for the Attorney General this week.

Kyle Saunders, professor of political science at Colorado State University, said Bennet was “immediately the favorite” in the race – but may not completely erase the ground.

Saunders described Weiser as a good candidate in a typical governors’ race, but in his opinion, this changes the chances that an exercise senator makes the very unusual decision to seek the office of a governor. In addition to the personal qualifications of Bennet, it also brings decades of campaign infrastructure.

“Bennet will be ahead of the financing of the campaign, he will be ahead in the organization of the campaign and the staff, he will be ahead in the recognition of the name,” said Saunders. “All these things are essential for anyone who tries to guarantee the democratic appointment for the governor’s work.”

On the republican side, the state senator Mark Baisley, the state representative Scott Bottoms and the Sheriff of the County of Teller, Jason Mikesell, launched governor campaigns.

The primary elections for the office will take place in the summer of 2026 and the general elections will be held in November.

Bennet says it is open to Tabor Reform

Bennet’s offer highlights the circular nature of Colorado policy.

He was chief of staff of John Hickenlooper when Hickenlooper was mayor of Denver in the early 2000s. Shortly after Governor Bill Ritter appointed Bennet at the Senate headquarters, Hickenlooper won the 2010 governors’ elections. Hickenlooper, after two terms as a governor, joined Bennet in the Senate in 2020.

The two men led unsuccessful campaigns to presidency In 2020. Now they could switch the roles they occupied for a large part of the 2010s.

Bennet congratulated Polis in an interview, in particular his free kindergarten program of the signature, but added that “no governor can do everything”.

Housing, health care and mental health care remain challenges for the state, said Bennet. He also recognized the state -of -the -art budgetary constraints. This week’s legislators got closer to the closing of a budget with $ 1.2 billion in discounts while the costs collided with the expense ceiling set by the taxpayer’s rights, or Tabor.

State legislators have launched certain ideas to adjust Tabor, such as another reset of the formula used to define the ceiling or an exemption from certain expenses, such as Medicaid, from it. Bennet has not approved a specific change but said: “I am sure that (Tabor) will be part of any campaign”, including his.

“We are faced with huge budgetary challenges as a state, and Tabor is clearly part of this problem,” said Bennet. “We must have an in -depth discussion on what we have to do and how Tabor should be reformed.”

In addition to electoral policy, Bennet was the superintendent of Denver’s public schools – a job that turned out to be formative for one of its Congress marquee victories. As part of the 2021 recovery bill, Bennet obtained the inclusion of a massive expansion of the federal tax credit on children, in the form of monthly checks of $ 300 to parents.

They only persisted for a year – but politics became something of a white whale for him after having half reduced the poverty of children, but was not renewed by the Congress. He presented a new version earlier this week, joined by almost the entire democratic Caucus.

Recent approach of Trump

When President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January, Bennet gave a more collaborative tone than some of his democratic colleagues. He is equal to the eighth among the Democrats in terms of more votes expressed in favor of Trump’s candidates, according to a tracker by the New York Times.