Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet’s gubernatorial trial balloon could scramble 2026 field | TRAIL MIX
(Ernest Luning/Colorado Politics)
Only a week ago, the contours of next year’s statewide elections in Colorado seemed clear, if the eventual results were still anybody’s guess.
For the first time since the early 1900s, all four of Colorado’s major statewide executive offices will be open on the 2026 ballot — all the Democratic incumbents, Gov. Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and State Treasurer Dave Young are each term-limited after first winning election in 2018 — with crowded primaries set to take shape in both major parties.
While the statewide primary lineups were far from determined — some likely candidates are said to still be considering whether to run — the complete turnover at the Capitol meant that plenty of ambitious politicians would finally have a chance to move up, after eight years with the same set of office-holders firmly in place.
Additionally, three of the four Democrats holding statewide office would have a chance to vie for one of the other posts, with only Polis, a potential White House contender, having no higher office to seek in Colorado, at least until one of the two Democratic-held U.S Senate seats comes open.
One of those seats is also on next year’s ballot, but Democrat John Hickenlooper is running for a second term in the Senate. Although he might attract a nominal primary challenge, the former Denver mayor and two-term governor has as close to a lock on the nomination as can be.
The action in next year’s statewide races is so far on the Democratic side, as prominent Republican candidates for any of the open offices have yet to emerge. What’s more, the GOP has only carried a single statewide race — for the part-time University of Colorado regent at-large seat — since 2014 and has only managed to elect a governor once in the last 50 years.
The way things looked until the last day of February, the Democratic race to take over after Polis terms out was shaping up to be one of the most competitive Colorado primaries in memory.
The party’s primaries for attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer have also started to fill up, with current and former legislators, district attorneys, county officials and the occasional candidates without prior elected experience announcing their campaigns or openly exploring bids.
The gubernatorial race, however, has been on the verge of shifting into high gear, with multiple Democratic heavyweights eyeing the opportunity to run for the most visible political position in the state.
Weiser, the attorney general, launched his campaign for governor in early January — after years of criss-crossing the state and scoring big wins in court — and was already raising a lot of money. Griswold, the secretary of state, is a likely contender, too, with sky-high name ID and years of facing off publicly against Donald Trump under her belt.
Also in the wings mulling bids are U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, two rising stars in the House who both first won their seats in 2018 and have since carved out national profiles.
Add in former Interior Secretary and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who recently stepped down as Joe Biden’s ambassador to Mexico, and it is as high-powered a cast of potential candidates as has ever assembled for a single office in a Colorado election.
But that all changed on Feb. 28, when Colorado’s senior U.S. senator, Michael Bennet, emerged as a potential candidate to replace Polis.
News that Bennet is “strongly considering” a run, according to top aides, landed like a meteor in an already tumultuous political landscape.
All of a sudden, the proverbial 800-pound gorilla — to compound the metaphor — was threatening to join what had previously appeared to be a fairly evenly matched field and, in the process, transformed scads of political futures overnight.
By all accounts, the 60-year-old Bennet — who was appointed to office in 2009 after Salazar stepped down and won election to a third full term in 2022 — had ruled out a gubernatorial bid as recently as a month ago. Bennet, his strategists said, was determined to stick it out in the Senate, where Democrats have been figuring out how to oppose sweeping efforts to reshape the federal government by an aggressive and fast-moving Trump administration.
In recent weeks, however, a senior advisor told Colorado Politics, Bennet has been having conversations with people who are encouraging him to consider running for governor and is now “very open” to the possibility. With Trump in the White House for the next four years and the GOP holding slim majorities in Congress, the aide said, Bennet is weighing whether leadership back home could make more of a difference than remaining in the Senate.
If he does run, Bennet doesn’t have to risk his current seat, which isn’t up for reelection until 2028.
And under Colorado law, if he’s elected governor next year, Benent will have the chance to appoint his own successor in the Senate, who can serve out the remainder of Bennet’s term in Washington and then get to run for a full term two years later.
That scenario means several of his potential primary rivals could have an incentive to stay out and endorse Bennet, hoping to remain in the running to take his place.
There are other reasons the Democratic primary field could dwindle quickly if Bennet decides to jump in, as seems more and more likely.
Just look to the party’s last open primary for Colorado’s other Senate seat, when Hickenlooper opened the door in early August 2019 to ending his stalled presidential campaign to return to Colorado to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who holds the distinction of being the last Republican to hold major statewide office in Colorado.
Before the ink was dry on the rumors of his potential switch, Hickenlooper was out of the presidential primary and had launched a Senate campaign. Within weeks, most of the leading Democratic candidates — some of whom had been running nearly all year and raised millions of dollars — withdrew from the race, and many endorsed the new frontrunner, who went on to win the primary and defeated Gardner in 2020.
Those who stepped aside after Hickenlooper got in included Mike Johnston, a former state senator who was later elected mayor of Denver; former U.S. Attorney John Walsh, who won election as Denver’s district attorney last year; former Ambassador Dan Baer; former state House Majority Leader Alice Madden; and, then-state Sen. Angela Williams. Former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff stayed in, as did several other candidates who failed to make the primary ballot.
While several candidates had polling that showed they were competitive in the primary and had as good of a chance as Hickenlooper against Gardner, strategists for candidates who dropped out told Colorado Politics at the time that their fundraising virtually dried up as soon as Hickenlooper floated the idea of entering the race, making it all but impossible to shoulder on, at least without having to go hard negative and endangering the party’s chances of unseating the incumbent.
Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He’s analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.