Bennet backed by state’s top Dems as he upends Colorado governor’s race

Flanked by some of the state’s most prominent Democratic elected officials, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet officially announced his campaign for Colorado governor Friday at an event in Denver’s City Park (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline).

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet officially announced his campaign for Colorado governor on Friday at an event in Denver’s City Park.

“Everything we care about now is at stake in our country,” Bennet said in a short announcement speech. “Business as usual is simply not enough, and that’s why I’m running for governor of Colorado.”

Before rumors of his interest began circulating in recent months, Bennet — the son of a Washington diplomat and a bipartisan dealmaker who seemed at home in the Senate cloakroom — was rarely named by Colorado political observers as a potential candidate for governor.

“I expect this decision might have come as a surprise to some of you,” Susan Daggett, Bennet’s wife, said while introducing him. “Although not to me.”

With his entry, he becomes the heavy favorite in a race that had been expected to be a wide-open contest between multiple up-and-coming Colorado Democrats. Gov. Jared Polis, who has served as governor since 2019, is term-limited. Attorney General Phil Weiser is the only other prominent Democrat to have entered the race so far.

If he is sworn in as governor in January 2027, Bennet, 60, will have served two full Senate terms and parts of two others. He was first appointed to his seat by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2009, after former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar was named as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Interior Department. As governor, he would have the power to appoint his own replacement, who would serve out the remaining two years of his term before the seat comes up for election again in 2028.

In the Senate, Bennet has been a champion for the expanded child tax credit, a temporary version of which was enacted as part of a COVID pandemic relief package in 2020. The measure cut child poverty in half while in effect, but it lapsed in the face of opposition to a permanent version among Republicans and former Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Other legislation backed by Bennet during his Senate tenure includes billions in funding for Western water projects in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act; a measure aimed at increasing broadband access; a proposal to regulate orphaned oil and gas wells; and a handful of protections for Colorado public lands.

He last won reelection with a landslide 2022 victory over Republican Joe O’Dea. He ran for president in 2020, dropping out after placing 11th in the New Hampshire primary with fewer than 1,000 votes.

Bennet and fellow Democrat John Hickenlooper, the other U.S. senator from Colorado, have come under fire from progressive Democrats for their approach to the second Trump administration, including their votes in favor of confirming some of President Donald Trump’s high-profile Cabinet nominees. Together, they’ve been statistical outliers in the Senate Democratic caucus, voting with Trump’s agenda far more often than would be expected based on Colorado’s partisan vote share.

Bennet has argued that Democrats need to “select our battles” after being “repudiated” in the 2024 election. As he took steps towards a run for governor, Bennet told Meet the Press on March 30 that he was “considering where the best place to have this fight is, and where the best place to reinvent the Democratic Party is.”

“I fundamentally believe that we will never preserve our democracy unless people know they have real opportunity — real economic opportunity for themselves and for their kids,” Bennet said. “That is the American dream, and it’s our obligation to make it a reality for every single Coloradan.”

An upended race

The upended 2026 governor’s race marks the second time in recent Colorado political history that a wide-open race for statewide office has been scrambled by the unexpected entrance of a heavy favorite.

In 2019, a half dozen prominent Democrats had thrown their hat in the ring for the party’s nomination for U.S. senator before Hickenlooper, a former governor mounting a doomed presidential bid, abruptly switched to the Senate race instead. Within weeks, all but one of Hickenlooper’s opponents dropped out, and he eased to a primary victory over former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.

In addition to Weiser, rumored contenders for governor in 2026 had included Salazar, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, and U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow. No major Democratic candidate has entered the race since Bennet aides first publicly floated the possibility of his gubernatorial bid in February. 

Last week, Griswold announced she would run for attorney general instead. Neguse and Crow both quickly endorsed Bennet on Friday morning, as did a long list of other Colorado Democrats including Hickenlooper, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, state Senate President James Coleman and state House Speaker Julie McCluskie.

“There is no one we trust more to lead our state and build a brighter future for families across Colorado than Michael Bennet,” Neguse said in a statement.

Weiser’s campaign sounded a defiant note as news broke of Bennet’s candidacy on Thursday, issuing a statement that contained implicit criticism of the senator’s approach to the Trump administration.

“We must protect Colorado and oppose Trump’s illegal actions, not appease him,” Weiser said. “I am the fighter Colorado needs as our next governor.”

“Two years ago, the voters sent Sen. Bennet back to D.C. because we believed he would be there for us no matter what — especially in historically dangerous moments like the one we currently face,” his statement added. “Now more than ever, we need experienced Democratic leaders in Washington.”

Coloradans have not elected a Republican governor since 2002. Republican candidates who have announced a run for governor in 2026 include state Sen. Mark Baisley, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.

Unlikely role reversal

Bennet’s decision sets the stage for what once would have seemed an unlikely role reversal for Colorado’s two current Democratic U.S. senators.

Hickenlooper and Bennet have been close allies since 2003, when the former, a successful restaurateur who had just been elected mayor of Denver, tapped the latter, a friend and fellow Wesleyan University graduate, to be his chief of staff.

But in the ensuing years they had taken different paths in their political careers, and when they faced each other on a presidential primary debate stage in 2019, they presented a contrast in styles — the folksy Hickenlooper touting his executive experience as a mayor and governor, the erudite Bennet pitching himself as a seasoned Washington operator.

Now, Hickenlooper — who declared after departing the governor’s mansion in 2019 that D.C. was “a lousy place” and he was “not cut out to be a senator” — is running for a second six-year Senate term at age 73.

And Bennet — a Beltway native and Senate institutionalist who has spoken reverently of the “world’s greatest deliberative body” and expressed regret over the erosion of traditional norms like the judicial filibuster — now intends to depart Congress amid an unprecedented assault on the legislative branch’s powers by the Trump administration.

“Our best solutions to these challenges will not come from the broken politics practiced in Washington,” Bennet said in a campaign launch video. “They will come from us, and that’s why I’m running for governor.”

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on Colorado Newsline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.