Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) will run for governor of Colorado and attempt to keep the state under Democratic control after the term-limited Gov. Jared Polis steps down.
The state’s senior senator announced his entrance into Colorado’s 2026 gubernatorial race in a video on Friday. Polis, who has led the state since 2019, is term-limited and cannot seek reelection.
Bennet’s campaign launch sets up a faceoff between him and Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who announced his campaign earlier this year. Bennet, the former Denver Public Schools superintendent, was first elected to the Senate in 2009 and ran for president in 2020.
In his campaign launch video, Bennet said that in the Senate, he has worked to “provide more opportunity to Coloradans, leading the battle to expand the child tax credit, limit the cost of prescription drugs, and protect our public lands.”
“But Donald Trump doesn’t believe in building opportunity. He believes in taking a wrecking ball to our economy and our democracy,” Bennet said. “Meanwhile, it’s getting harder to live in Colorado. Housing, groceries, and child care cost too much. Healthcare and mental healthcare aren’t available to everyone, and our schools and small businesses are struggling. Our best solutions to these challenges will not come from the broken politics practiced in Washington. They will come from us, and that’s why I’m running for governor in Colorado.”
Bennet expressed a similar sentiment during an interview with Politico magazine published last month, where he teased his run for governor, saying that the “central fight is whether or not we can create an economy where people feel like when they work hard they get ahead.”
He continued, “And I think the answer to that over the next decade is as likely to come from the states as it is from Washington.”
The Colorado Democrat is the front-runner in the race, having launched his campaign with the endorsements of Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, as well as several other state officials.
Bennet, whose Senate term does not end until 2028, is expected to retain his seat in the upper chamber while he runs. But his intent to leave Congress comes after a string of Senate Democrats also announced their intent to leave Washington, including Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Tina Smith (D-MN).
Colorado has a Democratic trifecta in its governor’s mansion and state legislature. The state has not elected a Republican governor since 2002, meaning the Democratic nominee has a strong possibility of being elected.
In the 2024 cycle, then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the blue state by 9 percentage points, with Polis winning his second term in 2022 by 19 points. Bennet secured a third term in the Senate in 2022 as well, winning by 15 points against his Republican challenger, Joe O’Dea.
Bennet’s chief Democratic opponent for the 2026 governor’s race, Weiser, is among the attorneys general who have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration for its changes to federal elections and cuts to the federal government. On the Republican side, the state GOP appears to expect a crowded primary field, including two state legislators: Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley and state Rep. Scott Bottoms.
Bennet made waves during the 2024 election after he was the first Senate Democrat to state publicly he did not believe then-President Joe Biden could win the presidential election.
“Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet said in July 2024. “So, for me, this isn’t a question about polling, it’s not a question of politics. It’s a moral question about the future of our country, and I think it’s critically important for us to come to grips with what we face if, together, we put this country on the path of electing Donald Trump again.”
2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS BEGIN TO TAKE SHAPE AS DEMOCRATS LOOK TO BREAK UP GOP TRIFECTA
More recently, Bennet split from Senate Democrats alongside fellow Coloradan Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) in choosing to support Trump’s nomination of Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Hickenlooper, 73, has announced his intent to run for reelection, a boon for Democrats as they look to regain control of the House and Senate in 2026.
