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Michael Bennet presidential campaign, 2020
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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| “ | We cannot be the first generation to leave less to our kids, not more. That’s why I’m running for President. Let’s build opportunity for every American and restore integrity to our government.[1] | ” |
| —Michael Bennet (May 2019)[2] | ||
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) declared his candidacy for president on May 2, 2019. He suspended his presidential campaign on February 11, 2020.[3]
He campaigned on expanding economic opportunity and promoting integrity in government.[4] Bennet said he would support an opt-in government-run health insurance system, tax cuts for families with children, and increased spending on education.[5]
Bennet previously served as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009.
Election results
New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on February 11, 2020
Candidate |
% |
Votes |
Pledged delegates |
|
 | Bernie Sanders |
25.6
|
76,384 | 9 |
 | Pete Buttigieg |
24.3
|
72,454 | 9 |
 | Amy Klobuchar |
19.7
|
58,714 | 6 |
 | Elizabeth Warren |
9.2
|
27,429 | 0 |
 | Joe Biden |
8.4
|
24,944 | 0 |
 | Thomas Steyer |
3.6
|
10,732 | 0 |
 | Tulsi Gabbard |
3.3
|
9,755 | 0 |
 | Andrew Yang |
2.8
|
8,312 | 0 |
 | Deval Patrick |
0.4
|
1,271 | 0 |
 | Michael Bennet |
0.3
|
952 | 0 |
 | Cory Booker |
0.1
|
157 | 0 |
 | Joe Sestak |
0.1
|
152 | 0 |
 | Kamala D. Harris |
0.0
|
129 | 0 |
 | Marianne Williamson |
0.0
|
99 | 0 |
 | Steve Burke |
0.0
|
86 | 0 |
 | Julián Castro |
0.0
|
83 | 0 |
 | John Delaney |
0.0
|
83 | 0 |
 | Steve Bullock |
0.0
|
64 | 0 |
|
| Tom Koos |
0.0
|
64 | 0 |
 | David John Thistle |
0.0
|
53 | 0 |
|
| Lorenz Kraus |
0.0
|
52 | 0 |
|
| Robert Carr Wells Jr. |
0.0
|
45 | 0 |
|
| Henry Hewes |
0.0
|
43 | 0 |
 | Sam Sloan |
0.0
|
34 | 0 |
|
| Mosemarie Boyd |
0.0
|
32 | 0 |
|
| Ben Gleiberman |
0.0
|
31 | 0 |
 | Mark Stewart Greenstein |
0.0
|
31 | 0 |
|
| Thomas Torgesen |
0.0
|
30 | 0 |
|
| Rita Krichevsky |
0.0
|
23 | 0 |
|
| Michael Ellinger |
0.0
|
19 | 0 |
|
| Jason E. Dunlap |
0.0
|
12 | 0 |
 | Roque De La Fuente III |
0.0
|
11 | 0 |
|
| Raymond Moroz |
0.0
|
8 | 0 |
| Other |
2.0
|
6,081 | 0 | |
 |
Total votes: 298,369 • Total pledged delegates: 24 |
Iowa caucus
Bennet in the news
This section featured five news stories about Bennet and his presidential campaign. For a complete timeline of Bennet's campaign activity, click here.
- February 11, 2020: Bennet ended his presidential campaign. He said, “I love our country. I love the idea of democracy. And I want to pass it on to the next generation. I feel nothing but joy tonight as we conclude this campaign and this chapter. Tonight wasn’t our night. But New Hampshire, you may see me once again.”
- February 11, 2020: Bennet campaigned across New Hampshire and held his election night watch party in Concord. “It’s very important, very important to do well in New Hampshire. It’s vital for me,” Bennet said.
- February 10, 2020: Bennet held town halls in New London and Manchester, New Hampshire.
- February 6, 2020: Rep. Jared Golden (Maine) endorsed Bennet, giving Bennet his first congressional endorsement.
- February 3, 2020: Bennet held his 47th town hall in New Hampshire, where he discussed prescription drug prices and other policy issues.
Biography
Bennet was born in 1964 in New Delhi, India, where his father was an aide to the U.S. ambassador, and grew up in Washington, D.C. He received a B.A. in history from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal.[6][7][8]
After graduating from Yale in 1993, Bennet clerked for Judge Francis D. Murnaghan on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked as an associate lawyer at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. In 1995, he became counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, and in 1997, special assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.[7][9][10][11]
Bennet moved to Colorado in 1997, where he became managing director at Anschutz Investment Company.[7][10][11] In 2003, then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper hired Bennet as his chief of staff. Two years later, he was selected as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, where he served until 2009.[7][10][12]
On January 21, 2009, Gov. Bill Ritter (D) appointed Bennet to the U.S. Senate after incumbent Ken Salazar (D) resigned to take a position in the Obama administration. In 2010, Bennet won the general election against Republican Ken Buck with 48.1% of the vote. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2016.[7][12] Bennet was a member of the Gang of Eight, a group of four Democratic and four Republican senators who attempted to pass a bipartisan immigration bill in 2013. His January 24, 2019, floor speech in response to Sen. Ted Cruz (R) about the partial government shutdown became the most-watched C-SPAN video on Twitter as of May 2, 2019.[13][14][15]
In 2019, Bennet published The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics, a book in which he assessed the state of American government.[16]
Campaign staff
- See also: Michael Bennet presidential campaign staff, 2020, Presidential election key staffers, 2020, and Presidential campaign managers, 2020
The table below shows a sampling of the candidate's 2020 national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager and some senior advisors, political directors, communication directors, and field directors. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available.[17] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action.
| Michael Bennet presidential campaign national staff, 2020 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | Position | Prior experience | Twitter handle |
| Daniel Barash | Senior advisor | Regional political director for expansion districts at the DCCC | @dzbarash |
| Craig Hughes | Senior advisor | Partner, Hilltop Public Solutions | @CraigHughesinCO |
| Jessica Boad | National finance director | Western regional candidate fundraising director, DCCC | N/A |
| Jill Straus | Senior advisor for finance | Founder at Straus/Baker | N/A |
| Tracy Sturman | Senior advisor for finance | Consultant at Golden State Strategies | N/A |
| Shannon Beckham | Communications advisor | Communications advisor, office of Sen. Michael Bennet | @ShannonMBeckham |
Campaign finance
The following chart shows Democratic presidential campaign fundraising, including both total receipts and contributions from individuals, as well as campaign spending. Figures for each candidate run through the end of June 2020 or through the final reporting period during which the candidate was actively campaigning for president. The total disbursements column includes operating expenditures, transfers to other committees, refunds, loan repayments, and other disbursements.[18]
Satellite spending
Satellite spending, commonly referred to as outside spending, describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[19][20][21]
This section lists satellite spending in this race reported by news outlets in alphabetical order. If you are aware of spending that should be included, please email us.
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
Debate participation
Bennet participated in two of the eight Democratic presidential primary debates that took place while he campaigned.
Campaign advertisements
Support
This section shows a sampling of advertisements released to support or oppose this candidate in the 2020 presidential election.
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Campaign themes
The following campaign themes and issues were published on Bennet's presidential campaign website:[22]
| “ |
Building Opportunity Together Drive Economic Opportunity When the Economy Grows, Incomes for Everyone Should Grow Yet, instead of addressing these economic changes, our broken political system has made matters worse. Since 2000, politicians have cut taxes by about $5 trillion, with two-thirds of those tax cuts going to those at or near the top. Meanwhile, we’ve spent another $5 trillion on wars overseas. We can’t spend the next two decades doing the same thing and expect a different result. Imagine if we invested in a stronger country that builds opportunity for every American here at home. Driving up incomes for everyone won’t happen overnight, but we can start by making investments to compete in the 21st century. Michael will seize the economic opportunity of combating climate change—providing new opportunities for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities to become more resilient and to invest in zero-emissions energy while growing the economy. He will work to fix roads and bridges that need repairing; upgrade and expand our mass transit systems, electric grid, and airports; and connect rural communities to high-speed, reliable broadband. He will make strategic, job-creating investments at home that help us out-compete China in the industries of the future—such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, superconductors, and quantum computing. We can do all of this for far less than the cost of those tax cuts and wars. And these investments will be designed to directly address the fact that too many shrinking small towns and rural counties, too many post-industrial cities, and too many pockets of concentrated poverty in rural and urban America have been left behind for too long. In the Meantime, We Need to Increase Wages and Lower Costs We need to take steps that will immediately increase economic security for all Americans. Michael’s plan to overhaul and expand the Child Tax Credit, called the American Family Act, will help middle-class families afford to raise their kids and cut child poverty by nearly 40%. He also will expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, ensure equal pay for equal work, enact paid family and medical leave, make it easier for workers to bargain for better pay, and raise the minimum wage. At the same time, we need to lower the costs that are making life unaffordable for too many Americans. That starts by covering every American with high-quality, affordable health insurance. Michael will work to create a public option called Medicare-X that increases competition, lowers costs, and provides everyone with a better healthcare choice. Medicare-X also empowers the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the first time, bringing down costs for tens of millions of Americans. To further lower costs, Michael will take action to tackle the housing affordability crisis and make child care more affordable. It's Time We Provide a Quality Education for Every American Michael will work to ensure that all of our children receive a high-quality education, from early childhood through high school; college students can pursue their studies without incurring the crushing burden of debt; more people seeking an alternative to college can pursue high-quality apprenticeships and job training; and Americans throughout their lives can advance their careers by improving their existing job skills or learning new ones. Restore American Values E pluribus unum: Out of many, one. As a country, we are at our best when we see ourselves in each other and see each other’s struggles as our own. We need to restore the American idea of pluralism—that despite our differences, we can treat everyone with respect and come together to solve problems. We’re all aware of the images of violence in our society: the shootings, whether by criminals or those who are supposed to protect us; the students running out of schools; the widespread family trauma; the acts of outright terrorism. We’ve seen social media and cable news outlets tear us apart in areas where we should be able to work together. We’ve seen the constant acts of pettiness and cruelty from a president that seeks to divide us. Restoring American values starts by undoing the damage wrought by the Trump Administration. Michael will reassert the importance of an independent judiciary and our respect for a free press; make clear that the federal government will protect Dreamers and end once and for all the practice of separating families; reverse the transgender military ban and the Muslim travel ban; condemn bigotry and hatred in all its forms; and undo other reckless decisions—large and small—the Trump Administration has made. But reversing that damage is not enough. We have to work together to build a more perfect union. Michael will work to fix our broken immigration system, enact common-sense steps to end gun violence, and reform the criminal justice system—keeping communities safe by building trust between law enforcement and communities of color, while ending the scourge of mass incarceration. He also will fight to protect all Americans from discrimination, whether based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Michael also will reclaim U.S. global leadership on security, fair economic competition, and freedom. He will re-engage our allies and build coalitions of partners to protect against current threats, prepare for security challenges of the future, and advance American interests. By living out our core values of liberty, democracy, and the rule of law at home, we can inspire them abroad. Fix Our Broken Politics We need to learn to govern ourselves again. There are 7,591 words in the Constitution of the United States; politics is not one of them. Yet too often today, the campaigning never stops and the governing never begins. To make progress, we must fix our broken politics. Corruption and dysfunction in Washington not only destroy the American people’s trust in government but also prevent us from making critical decisions for our future. For too long, we have allowed a tyranny of the minority—whether the extremist so-called Freedom Caucus or a handful of billionaires who drop tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns—to override the will of the American people. When the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United decision, allowed the influence of unlimited dark money from billionaires into our politics, they took a narrow and misguided view of how money corrupts Washington. More common than politicians acting at the direct request of their donors is a widespread corruption of inaction, in which politicians do nothing to solve critical problems—like climate change or soaring health care costs—for fear of having millions of dollars spent against them in their next campaign. We need to restore trust in our government by dismantling pay-to-play politics, increasing transparency, and reinvigorating the democratic process. Michael will ban Members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists and overturn Citizens United to get unlimited dark money out of politics. He also will protect the right to vote, ensure the security of our elections, and reduce extreme partisanship in our electoral process—starting with his plan to make partisan gerrymandering illegal. Voters should choose their elected officials, not the other way around.[1] |
” |
| —Michael Bennet[22] | ||
Bennet participated in an interview series with The New York Times that asked 21 Democratic candidates the same series of 18 questions. To view Bennet's responses, click here.
Archive of Political Emails
The Archive of Political Emails was founded in July 2019 to compile political fundraising and advocacy emails sent by candidates, elected officials, PACs, nonprofits, NGOs, and other political actors.[23] The archive includes screenshots and searchable text from emails sent by 2020 presidential candidates. To review the Bennet campaign's emails, click here.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing
The following section provides a timeline of Bennet's campaign activity beginning in May 2019. The entries, which come from Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing, are sorted by month in reverse chronological order.
2020
2019
See also
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Presidential election endorsements, 2020
- PredictIt markets in the 2020 presidential election
- Presidential candidate campaign travel, 2020
- Democratic presidential primary debates, 2020
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Twitter, "Michael Bennet," May 2, 2019
- ↑ NPR, "Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet Ends 2020 Democratic Presidential Campaign," Febraury 11, 2020
- ↑ Politico, "Michael Bennet dives into crowded Democratic presidential primary," May 2, 2019
- ↑ Youtube, "7,591 Words," May 2, 2019
- ↑ Rocky Mountain News, "Bennet's tale steeped in family roots," archived March 1, 2009
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "BENNET, Michael F., (1964 - )," accessed July 10, 2019
- ↑ Weslyan University, "Senator Michael Bennet ’87: Pragmatist with Vision," January 27, 2009
- ↑ CPR News, "3-17-08 CSAP_BIO2," December 15, 2009
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, "Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator From Colorado," accessed July 10, 2019
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Denver Post, "Bennet’s rèsumè impressive, even if it doesn’t fit the job," January 5, 2009
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Denver Post, "Michael Bennet: 5 things to know about the U.S. Senator," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "Michael Bennet and the Immigration Compromise That Failed," June 27, 2019
- ↑ Politico, "Michael Bennet dives into crowded Democratic presidential primary," May 2, 2019
- ↑ Twitter, "C-SPAN," January 24, 2019
- ↑ The New York Times, "A Presidential Candidate Assesses the Nation’s Political Ills," June 24, 2019
- ↑ Democracy in Action, "Organization," accessed November 4, 2019
- ↑ FEC, "U.S. President," accessed July 16, 2019
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," November 6, 2015
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Michael Bennet for President, "Michael's Vision," accessed May 3, 2019
- ↑ Archive of Political Emails, "About," accessed September 16, 2019
