WASHINGTON – If Sen. Michael Bennet is successful in his bid for Colorado governor, he will leave the Senate with several accomplishments and much unfinished business – including as it relates to Southwest Colorado.
In a video announcing his candidacy, Bennet cited some of his successes in the Senate and spoke about challenges facing Coloradans, like cost of living and access to health care.
“Our best solutions to these challenges will not come from the broken politics practiced in Washington. They will come from us, and that’s why I’m running for governor,” he said. “… It’s here we can best fight Trump’s corruption while building a better future for our kids and our grandkids.”
In recent months, Bennet has sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s administration but has taken a different approach with confirming Trump’s cabinet nominees. He voted to confirm several nominees, including fellow Coloradan Chris Wright as Secretary of the Department of Energy and Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture, saying he thought that approach was more productive, especially when it comes to building relationships with executive leadership on issues most pertinent to Colorado.
With a slew of endorsements already piling up, Bennet joins Democrat Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Joining the Senate in 2009, Bennet is Colorado’s second-longest serving member of Congress. He served alongside three other senators from the state: Democrat Mark Udall, Republican Cory Gardner and Democrat John Hickenlooper.
During that time, Bennet often maintained a relatively low national profile, though he launched a short-lived campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He drew attention more recently as one of the first Democratic senators to express concern about then-President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, who had a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
He has made expanding the Child Tax Credit a priority, often citing his experience as superintendent of Denver Public Schools as a motivator to end child poverty. He authored the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit in the 2021 American Rescue Plan, which expired at the end of that year but helped nearly halve child poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This week he introduced the American Family Act to permanently expand the child tax credit, but the bill is unlikely to muster the necessary Republican votes to clear the 60-vote filibuster.
Here’s a look at some of Bennet’s legislative hits – and misses – for Southwest Colorado:
In February, Bennet reintroduced the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, which would permanently protect more than 420,000 acres of public lands on the Western Slope. The bill combines four previously independent pieces of legislation, covering parts of the San Juan Mountains, the Thompson Divide, the Continental Divide and the Curecanti National Recreation Area.
Closest to Durango, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act – which has been in the Senate since 2009 – would impact 61,000 acres of federal public land. It would establish a special management area covering Sheep Mountain, including Hope Lake and the ever-popular Ice Lake Basin. It also would designate new wilderness areas between Lizard Head Pass and the Weminuche Wilderness, and create a mineral withdrawal at Naturita Canyon.
The CORE Act faces an uphill battle in the 119th Congress, largely owing to the fact that it must clear the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which is chaired by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a steadfast critic of public lands.
Bennet, Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd reintroduced legislation in February to compensate those affected by the 2015 Gold King Mine spill, which sent 3 million gallons of acidic, heavy-metal laden water into the Animas and San Juan rivers.
The spill forced recreation businesses to temporarily close and prompted some farmers and livestock owners to find alternative water supplies or relocate animals until water quality could be adequately tested.
In the years after the spill, claimants heard conflicting and opposing answers on whether they would ever be compensated for lost business. Ultimately, the Environmental Protection Agency, which was responsible for the spill and part of the cost of the subsequent cleanup, denied their claims.
The proposed bill would authorize up to $3.3 million to fulfill remaining claims.
In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission issued a rule allowing counties to apply for in-state channels to be added to their media markets. That followed advocacy from Bennet and Udall, who worked to include language for the rule in the 2014 Satellite Television Extension and Localism Reauthorization Act – or STELAR.
It was key for so-called “orphan counties” like La Plata and Montezuma, which had been lumped in with the Albuquerque media market. Television viewers were often blocked from accessing Colorado broadcasts for news, weather, sports and emergency communications. At least once a year, residents in Southwest Colorado would miss out on a Denver Broncos game.
After urging from Bennet, Gardner and former Rep. Scott Tipton, the FCC approved La Plata County’s petition in 2017 to be allowed to view Denver’s media market, but it wasn’t until 2020 that residents first gained access to Colorado broadcasts. That February, DISH Network began carrying Rocky Mountain PBS, followed by ABC and Fox affiliates in Denver. DirectTV soon followed suit.
By then, television markets had become so fractured that many residents had identified workarounds. However, some viewers still cannot access the media markets of their choice.
The Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act turned 10 in December 2024. Bennet, Udall and Tipton successfully brought it to the finish line in 2014.
After years of grassroots advocacy, the bill created a 70,000-acre special management area and a 37,000-acre wilderness area that protects nearly the entire watershed. The legislation prohibits vehicles and bicycles within the wilderness, and the San Juan National Forest has since added new trails and enhanced conservation efforts for wildlife in the tributaries.
“I’ve never met a person – literally not met a person – that said they wish that we had not passed the Hermosa Creek watershed bill,” Bennet told The Durango Herald in December 2024. “I think there’s universal agreement that it was good for Durango and good for Southwest Colorado, good for Colorado as a whole.”
Under the 1911 federal mandate tied to Fort Lewis College’s original land grant in Hesperus, students from any federally recognized Native American tribe can attend the college tuition-free. The state of Colorado covers the cost of tuition for those students, including out-of-state Indigenous students.
In 2010, Bennet, Udall and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., introduced legislation that would require the federal government to pick up the cost of out-of-state students, citing the rising number of Native students and the growing financial burden to the state.
The bill was reintroduced in subsequent sessions, but it has never received a vote.
Kathryn Squyres is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ksquyres@durangoherald.com.
