No sooner were the words out of his mouth Tuesday night that he was abandoning his run for the White House than U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet muddied the political waters by telling a small crowd of supporters in Concord, N.H., that “you may see me once again.”
Did Colorado’s senior senator mean he had begun plotting a 2024 or 2028 presidential run? Did he mean he wants to broaden his national profile within the Democratic Party? Or does Bennet, 55, simply want another chance to try the Coffee BBQ Bacon Bison Burger in New Hampshire’s capital city?
“He’s in a position now in which he can say, ‘I’m only going to take a job to work on things I’m interested in,’ ” said Laura Chapin, a Democratic political strategist based in Denver. “He’s been a very good, very solid senator, but I also think Sen. Bennet has the luxury to do what he wants.”
Chapin was one of half a dozen politics watchers and analysts The Denver Post interviewed — and asked to divine Bennet’s future — in the days after his exit from the presidential race. Few see him as a likely vice presidential pick, though a Cabinet post under a Democratic president is a distinct possibility.
“He’s an operative — he could do a lot of things,” said Josh Penry, a Republican strategist who served in the statehouse for six years. “He could run a big agency.”
But others think Bennet should stay right where he is — in the U.S. Senate, where he first took office in 2009. He could embark on a third term as senator should he win re-election in 2022.
“I think he would be a much more effective political actor if he stayed in the Senate,” said Mindi Haddad, a Denver-based political strategist, who calls Bennet a collaborator. “I think it would be putting his talents to best use.”
That seems to be Bennet’s immediate plan, telling a Denver Post reporter in New Hampshire this week that he’s “looking forward to going back to Colorado and running for re-election there.” But beyond that, it’s not clear what the long-term picture is for Bennet, who got his start in state politics 17 years ago working as chief of staff to then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
As for a future presidential bid, the senator was certain about his uncertainty: “I don’t have any idea.”
As one of a couple of dozen Democratic candidates who at one point crisscrossed the country on the presidential campaign trail, Bennet should be an obvious potential pick to vie for the nation’s second-in-command post, assuming a Democrat beats President Donald Trump in November.
But Seth Masket, director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, said Bennet’s window of opportunity to be the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket in this political climate — should he even want it — is narrow.
“Given how central race and gender representation has been to this whole nomination contest, it seems unlikely there would be two white men on the ticket,” Masket said. “But assuming the nominee isn’t another white man, Bennet would be a possibility for the vice presidential slot.”
Eric Sondermann, an independent political analyst, took a similarly dim view of Bennet’s odds of getting anointed as the No. 2 on the ticket.
“I think identity politics is going to play a significant role in the Democratic vice presidential pick,” he said. “There will be huge pressure to pick a minority or a woman.”
But that’s not the only reason for his long odds for vice president, Haddad said.
“It’s not just about him being a white guy — it’s about him being an introverted white guy,” she said. “When it comes to the campaign trail, that is not where he shines. People expect to see a show, and Sen. Bennet is not a showman.”
Instead, she said, Bennet excels in wonk — the tough, detail-oriented policy analysis and issue deconstruction that doesn’t translate well at a boisterous rally or during a fast-paced television appearance. He predicated his presidential run, which began in May, on a desire to make the federal government, especially Congress, function again.
“We need thought leaders like Sen. Bennet who can get into the wonky details that no one else wants to get into and then collaborate with others,” Haddad said.
That could mean a role in a Democratic president’s administration — be it Cabinet-level or somewhere else in the executive branch. Bennet, who served as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, was considered for the job of secretary of education late in 2008 as President Barack Obama prepared to be sworn in.
Just weeks later, Gov. Bill Ritter appointed him to the U.S. Senate to take over for the departing Ken Salazar. He won election in 2010 and again in 2016.
Former Colorado GOP chair Dick Wadhams said Bennet could do well in a number of Cabinet positions, including education, commerce and treasury.
“He has a very impressive business background,” Wadhams said. “He’d be someone a Democratic president would consider.”
Laying the groundwork?
To launch another bid for the White House — be it in four years or eight, when Bennet is 63 — he would need to first regain his Senate seat in two years, Wadhams said.
“I just can’t see private citizen Michael Bennet putting together a campaign in 2024,” he said.
DU’s Masket said Bennet’s poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire this year don’t lock the door to another attempt at the presidency.
“Judging from the outside, he seemed to enjoy the run even while never polling very well, and he’s made quite a few friends in New Hampshire,” he said.
Rick Ridder, a political consultant who served as campaign manager to Howard Dean when Dean ran for president 16 years ago, said there are parallels between Bennet’s situation and that of Gary Hart, another U.S. senator from Colorado who ran for president more than 30 years ago.
Ridder was national field director for Hart during his 1984 run for the White House. While the candidate came up short that year to Walter Mondale, he fared far better in his first attempt at the nation’s highest office than Bennet did this year in his inaugural attempt — laying the foundation for a formidable presidential run four years later.
Hart, now 83, endorsed Bennet in the Democratic nomination contest last summer.
“Bennet’s not where Gary was in ’84, but he has certainly laid the groundwork for being a major player in the Democratic Party for the future,” Ridder said.
But first there’s the matter of hanging on to his U.S. Senate seat, which Wadhams said is no sure thing. He said Bennet has been “one of the luckiest candidates in America,” barely eking out a win in 2010 over U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who was then the district attorney for Weld County, and six years later beating a Republican opponent who got little help from the national Republican Party.
Penry, the former state lawmaker from the Western Slope, said “the right Republican could compete with him in 2022.”
For now, Bennet said he intends to continue his push for Democrats to run on more moderate proposals for health care, immigration and other issues than front-runner U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has been pushing in his presidential campaign.
“Other than getting nominated myself, I think the purpose (of running) is trying to showcase a set of ideas and an agenda that can allow us to win purple states in this country and beat Donald Trump,” he said. “I’ve thought about my kids and the kids I worked for in the Denver Public Schools (as superintendent). And as long as they’re willing to keep trying hard, I’m willing to keep trying hard.”
Staff writer Jon Murray contributed to this report.