Michael Bennet

Michael Bennet (born November 28, 1964, New Delhi, India) is an American politician and lawyer who was appointed as a Democrat to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate in 2009 and was elected to that body the following year.

He was born in New Delhi, where his father, Douglas Bennet, was working for the U.S. State Department, and the family eventually settled in the Washington, D.C., area. In 1987 Bennet earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wesleyan University. After working as an aide (1988–90) to Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste, he went to Yale Law School, where he served as editor of The Yale Law Journal before graduating in 1993. Bennet then worked as a clerk for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and later served as counsel (1995–97) to the U.S. deputy attorney general and as a special assistant (1997) to the U.S. attorney for Connecticut. During that time he married Susan Daggett, and the couple later had three children.

In 1997 Bennet moved to Denver to become a director of Anschutz Investment Company, guiding troubled businesses as they reorganized under bankruptcy orders and restructured debt. His work came to the attention of the mayor of Denver (later governor of Colorado), John Hickenlooper, who named him his chief of staff in 2003. Two years later Bennet became superintendent of Denver Public Schools, and he garnered notice for helping turn around the failing system. In 2009, when Ken Salazar left the U.S. Senate to become secretary of the interior, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Bennet to finish Salazar’s term. Bennet then ran for the seat in 2010, defeating his Republican opponent after a vigorous and costly campaign.

In the Senate, Bennet emerged as a strong ally of U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, vocally supporting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), immigration reform, and other hallmark programs of the administration. In a time of widespread political division, Bennet became known for courting bipartisan support for his legislative proposals. He focused his attention on the development of the renewable energy sector, which was economically important to his state. In 2016 Bennet won another term in the Senate. That year he also endorsed Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, but she was defeated by Donald Trump. Bennet became a vocal critic of Trump and voted against most of his initiatives, including a massive tax-reform bill (2017).

In January 2019 Bennet drew widespread attention for an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in which he accused Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of hypocrisy concerning the U.S. government shutdown. In May Bennet announced his candidacy for president in 2020. He stated that one of his reasons for running was to “restore integrity to the government.” Shortly after entering the race, Bennet published The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics (2019). His campaign, however, never gained momentum, and he dropped out in February 2020. That month the Senate concluded its impeachment trial of Trump; in 2019 the House of Representatives had convicted the president of withholding aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the country into opening a corruption investigation into Joe Biden, a political rival. Bennet voted to convict, but Trump was acquitted in an almost party-line vote. Bennet subsequently endorsed Biden in the presidential election, and the latter went on to win the Democratic nomination and to defeat Pres. Donald Trump in the general election. Trump, however, refused to concede, alleging widespread voter fraud despite a lack of evidence.

On January 6, 2021, Bennet and other members of Congress met to certify Biden’s victory, and the proceedings were temporarily halted after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Bennet called for Trump to be removed from office through the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Shortly thereafter the House impeached Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection.” In the Senate trial Bennet voted to convict, but Trump was again acquitted. Bennet supported a number of Biden’s initiatives, including a major infrastructure bill (2021). In 2022 he ran for reelection and faced a strong challenge from Joe O’Dea, a Republican business owner with no previous political experience.