Michael Bennet’s campaign for Colorado governor has officially begun. So has the power struggle to fill his Senate seat.
The three-term senator’s entrance into the governor’s race, where he faces a Democrat primary race against Attorney General Phil Weiser, has ignited a shadow campaign for his Senate seat
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Michael Bennet, Colorado’s senior U.S. senator, announced Friday that he will run for governor in 2026, entering the race as the de facto favorite and igniting a power struggle among the state’s top Democrats over who will be appointed to his seat in Washington if he wins.
“I think we can address many of the challenges that people are facing — from housing to education to health care and mental health care — and also make Colorado a model for the rest of the country,” Bennet said in an interview with The Colorado Sun ahead of his announcement,
Bennet was appointed to the Senate in 2009 by then-Gov. Bill Ritter and is now in his third term. A graduate of Yale Law School, he previously served as superintendent of Denver Public Schools and chief of staff to then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper went on to be governor and is now a fellow U.S. senator.
Before rising in Democratic politics, Bennet worked for the conservative billionaire Phil Anschutz as part of the Denver businessman’s investment arm.
Bennet is the second big-name Democrat to jump into the gubernatorial race. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced his candidacy at the start of the year.
The senator, who lives in Denver, plans to remain in the U.S. Senate while he campaigns for governor, saying he’s confident he will be able to do both jobs at once.
“I am going to continue to work tirelessly to both fulfill my responsibility to Colorado and to continue to help lead the battle against Donald Trump,” he said. “I have run for office before while I’ve been in this job. To be really honest, my schedule doesn’t change very much when I’m running for office versus when I’m not.”
Bennet’s decision to jump into the gubernatorial race has started behind-the-scenes maneuvering to replace him in the Senate.
Should he be elected governor, Bennet could resign from the Senate and let Gov. Jared Polis select the person who would serve out his term, which ends in January 2029. However, Bennet said he plans to stay in the job until he is sworn in as governor and hand pick his successor.
“I believe that if I’m elected governor, I will be in the position to pick the replacement,” he said.
U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen are seen as the top contenders for Bennet’s seat. Colorado has never had a Black senator or a woman senator.
Neguse, who is Black, was also mulling a 2026 gubernatorial bid, but endorsed Bennet on Friday.
Pettersen didn’t rule out pursuing the appointment when asked recently by The Sun.
“I’m honored to have people calling me and that have me in the consideration,” she said. “Oftentimes women are overlooked and underestimated.”
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Crow, who also endorsed Bennet on Friday after also considering a 2026 bid to be Colorado’s next governor, is also interested in the appointment.
Bennet’s entrance in the governor’s race is likely to keep other big-name Democrats out of the contest. For instance, Secretary of State Jena Griswold was considering a run for governor next year. But she’s now running for attorney general in 2026 in the wake of Bennet’s plans.
In addition to support from Crow and Neguse, Bennet launched his campaign Friday with endorsements from Hickenlooper, Colorado Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, and Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, as well as the backing of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.
Bennet is holding a 10 a.m. event in Denver’s City Park to roll out more endorsements and talk about his campaign. News of Bennet’s gubernatorial bid began to leak out Thursday.
People began approaching Bennet last year in an attempt to draft him to run for governor. Initially, he resisted, telling top Democrats was going to stay in the Senate. But his views changed around the new year, as first reported by The Sun in February.
“The epiphany was knowing that there’s a really, I think, as important a fight in the states as there will be here in Washington,” he said. “There is also the opportunity to be able to do substantive work as an executive, to create solutions to the challenges that we’re facing economically, as a country and as a state.”
Bennet is setting his sights on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — “we are long overdue a conversation in Colorado about how our state government is funded” — and helping Colorado weather any federal funding cuts.
“I’ve got first-hand experience of how the federal government works, how Donald Trump works,” Bennet said. “I think I’m in a position to be able to help protect Colorado from some of the potential cuts that are coming, and to help us think through how best to respond to those cuts, both substantively and politically.”
If Bennet loses his gubernatorial bid and completes his current term, he would be Colorado’s longest-serving senator in the century since state legislatures stopped selecting senators.
Bennet is better known than Weiser
A recent poll indicates Bennet has a big leg up on Weiser.
The survey showed that 45% of likely 2026 voters in Colorado had a favorable opinion of Bennet, while 31% had a negative view of him. Seventeen percent said they had no opinion of the senator, while 8% said they didn’t know him.
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As for Weiser, 22% said they had a favorable view of him, while 18% said they had an unfavorable view. A whopping 34% said they had never heard of Weiser, while 26% said they had no opinion of him.
The Colorado Polling Institute Survey was conducted among 615 likely 2026 voters in Colorado from March 27 to 31. It had a margin of error of 3.95 percentage points.
Weiser, however, is a fundraising juggernaut. His gubernatorial campaign raised nearly $2 million in its first three months.
In a written statement Thursday, Weiser took swipes at Bennet for leaving the Senate and hinted that he was out of touch with Colorado issues.
“While Sen. Bennet has been in Washington, I have served Colorado as the people’s lawyer, working directly with people in every county of every background to solve difficult challenges,” Weiser said. “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.”
Bennet has long been interested in an executive political role. He ran for president in 2020, but dropped out after the Democratic primary in New Hampshire.
The Democratic primary for the 2026 gubernatorial race in Colorado won’t be held until June 2026. Whoever wins the primary will likely cruise to victory in the general election.
Current Gov. Jared Polis is term-limited and can’t run for reelection in 2026. He won reelection in 2022 by nearly 20 percentage points. He secured his first term in 2018 by 10 points.
The Democratic headwinds haven’t stopped a growing crowd of Republicans from getting into the gubernatorial race, including state Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs; Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park; and Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.
State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, is also weighing whether to jump into the race.
Colorado has not elected a Republican to be governor since 2002, when then-Gov. Bill Owens secured a second term.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
