Michael Bennet

From Grokipedia

Michael F. Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed to the Senate in January 2009 to fill the vacancy left by Ken Salazar's resignation as Secretary of the Interior and won the ensuing special election in 2010 by a narrow margin of less than 1%, followed by reelections in 2016 and 2022. Prior to his Senate tenure, Bennet served as superintendent of the Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009, implementing reforms such as a merit-based teacher pay system amid efforts to improve urban education outcomes, and earlier as chief of staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. With a background in private equity, including as managing director at Anschutz Investment Company, Bennet has emphasized pragmatic, bipartisan approaches to issues like economic competitiveness, infrastructure investment, and education policy during his Senate career. In 2019, he briefly pursued the Democratic presidential nomination, focusing on anti-corruption measures and reducing partisan polarization, but suspended his campaign in February 2020 after struggling to gain traction in early primary polling.

In brief

Michael Bennet came to public life through other people’s offices: a clerkship, a stint with Ohio’s governor, then Denver City Hall under John Hickenlooper. Superintending Denver Public Schools taught him how a budget looks from a classroom doorway.

The Senate seat opened when Ken Salazar left for Interior. Bennet took it and kept it, a Coloradan who talks about kids and debt in the same breath and prefers a hearing room to a rally.