Several ambitious Democrats have spent years plotting ascents to the peak of Colorado politics, eyeing the open 2026 gubernatorial contest as a prime opportunity for a promotion. But an avalanche of February headlines about U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s sudden interest in the job has stopped most prospective candidates dead in their tracks.
Multiple Democratic sources told The Cook Political Report that they expect Bennet to mount a bid for governor in the coming months, setting him up for a primary clash with Attorney General Phil Weiser. Republicans last won Colorado’s governorship in 2002 and have only bled support in the state since Donald Trump’s political rise, so the Democratic primary will almost certainly decide who succeeds term-limited Gov. Jared Polis.
Bennet, 60, has made no bones about his frustrations with Democrats’ aging leadership in Washington. Days after the June 2024 presidential debate, he became the first Senate Democrat to publicly argue that then-President Joe Biden was incapable of winning reelection. More recently, he took one of his caucus’s most vocal stands against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s handling of the
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The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends.
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