Michael Bennet is a prominent American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado.
A Democrat, he has held the position since his appointment in 2009 to fill the vacancy left by Ken Salazar, who became Secretary of the Interior.
Born on November 28, 1964, in New Delhi, India, where his father was working for the U.S. State Department, Bennet grew up in the Washington, D.C., area.
He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.
Siblings
Michael has a brother, James Bennet, a journalist who previously served as the editorial page director for The New York Times.
He also has a sister named Holly.
The siblings, along with their parents, father Douglas J. Bennet, a former State Department official and president of Wesleyan University, and mother Susanne, a school librarian and Polish immigrant who survived the Warsaw ghetto, grew up in a household steeped in public service and education.
Career
Bennet’s professional journey began in public service and law.
Early in his career, he worked as an aide to Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.
After law school, he clerked for a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and served as counsel to the U.S. deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration.
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In 1997, he moved to Denver to join Anschutz Investment Company, where he helped restructure troubled businesses.
His work caught the attention of then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who appointed him chief of staff in 2003.
In 2005, Bennet became superintendent of Denver Public Schools, where he implemented reforms that improved student achievement, turned around failing schools, and addressed chronic budget issues.
In 2009, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter appointed him to the U.S. Senate.
He won election to a full term in 2010, defeating Republican Ken Buck, and was reelected in 2016 and 2022.
In the Senate, Bennet has focused on bipartisan efforts, including immigration reform as part of the “Gang of 8,” expanding access to health care, supporting renewable energy, upgrading infrastructure, expanding broadband, and championing veterans’ benefits through measures like the PACT Act.
He also played a key role in passing the expanded Child Tax Credit in 2021, which significantly reduced childhood poverty and hunger.
Known for pragmatic and independent approaches, he chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2014 and briefly ran for president in 2020.
Accolades
As superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Bennet’s reforms garnered national attention for halting budget cuts and boosting performance in a struggling district.
In the Senate, he has been praised for bipartisan collaboration, including contributions to the No Surprises Act protecting against surprise medical bills and the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiations and senior cost caps.
His work on the Child Tax Credit expansion was credited with cutting childhood poverty nearly in half and reducing hunger by a third for a period.
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