On behalf of Michael, Susan, the girls, and all of Bennet for America, we wanted to take a moment to extend our thanks to every person who has supported this campaign over the past year.
To everyone who made a donation, hosted us in your home, called voters, wrote postcards, made an endorsement, authored a letter to the editor, engaged friends and neighbors, flew across the country to knock doors, attended an event, asked a question, or shared your concerns, hopes, and dreams — we are eternally grateful.
Michael got into this fight because we need to leave the next generation with more opportunity, not less. And together, with Michael’s Real Deal agenda, we can make that a reality by ensuring Donald Trump is a one-term president and electing Democrats up and down the ballot across the country.
So together, we carry this fight forward. Our country’s and our kids’ futures depend on it.
As Michael said on primary night in New Hampshire, everything is in our hands.
Add your name here if you’re in this fight with Michael >>
Vox:
… His candidacy still matters in part because his whole policy strategy was an attempt to map a course that a Democratic Senate with a Democratic president could actually pass without alienating moderate senators from red states. Whoever the next president is, the odds are their eventual policy record may look more like Bennet’s platform than their own.
Des Moines Register Editorial Board:
The U.S. senator from Colorado impressed the editorial board in both his visits. He boasts a resume of accomplishment in several spheres: an attorney, an executive at an investment company, superintendent of the Denver public schools and a two-term senator.
His insights into the challenges of urban education alone would be an epiphany for the executive branch. He’s pragmatic (he was part of the Gang of Eight that secured passage of a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate, and he argues for a public option as a more workable path than pushing immediately for “Medicare for All”), but he’s also pound-the-table passionate about fiscal irresponsibility and congressional dysfunction.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a one-time rival in the presidential race, complimented Bennet as a trusted ally in pursuing criminal justice reform and combating racial injustice.
… He could continue doing good work in the Senate, or he would make a fine secretary of education. Either could position him for another presidential bid, which would be welcomed.
Michael Bennet is heartened that his long-shot presidential candidacy appears to have injected a dose of reality into the Democratic primary debate and believes his nine-month campaign, which never broke into the crowded field’s upper ranks, will improve his ability to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate, an institution he describes as broken. …
Bennet pointed to an article by Vox correspondent Dylan Matthews that described his impact on the primary as pervasive, predicting that “Whoever the next president is, the odds are their eventual policy record may look more like Bennet’s platform than their own.”
“That’s what I was trying to do with the ‘Real Deal,’ ” Bennet said, referring to a sweeping package that included an annual tax credit aimed at slashing child poverty, expanding Medicare with a public option and driving $10 trillion in investments to combat climate change.
“What I wanted to do was present a progressive agenda that any Democrat could run on in any race in America, from the top to the bottom,” Bennet said.
“Because of my understanding that we can’t just win the White House, but we have to win the Senate as well, and someday we might actually be able to have a functioning Senate again where Democrats and Republicans work together on policy, I think I’ve picked a bunch of things here that, if we ever have a functional Senate again, will be of interest.”
Durango Herald Editorial Board:
Michael Bennet’s very rational Democratic platform never received much traction in this hyper-political environment. His “The Real Deal” included nationwide preschool, support for post-high school technical job-training and increases in the Child and Earned Income Tax Credits. Bennet rightly criticized Bernie Sanders’ free medical care and college education as unrealistically expensive, instead saying that it’s better to make college no-cost for those from families with less than a $75,000 income. Bennet also would have made a pathway to citizenship for the at least 11 million in this country who deserve it, an immigration issue he had worked hard on in a bipartisan way in the Senate.
We expect Bennet will continue to be a senator eager to find solutions to the country’s more difficult challenges.
