Michael Bennet
Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed to the seat when Senator Ken Salazar became Secretary of the Interior. Bennet previously worked as a managing director for the Anschutz Investment Company, chief of staff to Denver mayor (and his future Senate colleague) John Hickenlooper, and superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
For other people with similar names, see Michael Bennett (disambiguation) and Senator Bennet (disambiguation).
Michael Bennet
Jerome Wartgow
Tom Boasberg
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Douglas J. Bennet (father)
James Bennet (brother)
Bennet is the son of Douglas J. Bennet, a former State Department official and president of Wesleyan University. Early in his career, Bennet worked for Ohio governor Richard Celeste. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, worked as a law clerk, and was counsel to the U.S. deputy attorney general during the administration of Bill Clinton.
Bennet served then Mayor John Hickenlooper as his chief of staff from 2003 to 2005 and became superintendent of the Denver public school system in July 2005. Governor Bill Ritter appointed Bennet to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Ken Salazar when Salazar became Secretary of the Interior in January 2009. Bennet was elected in the 2010 Senate election, defeating Republican nominee Ken Buck. He chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for the 2014 cycle[1] and was reelected to the Senate in 2016 and 2022.
On May 2, 2019, Bennet announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. He dropped out of the race on February 11, 2020, after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
Bennet was born in New Delhi, India. His mother is Susanne Christine Bennet (née Klejman), a retired elementary school librarian[3][4][5] and Jewish Holocaust survivor who was born in 1938 in Warsaw, Poland, and immigrated to the United States with her family in 1950.[3][6][7] Her parents survived imprisonment in the Warsaw Ghetto.[3][8] His father is Douglas J. Bennet,[3][9] who was born in New Jersey, and served as an aide to Chester Bowles, then the U.S. ambassador to India.[3] Douglas Bennet ran the United States Agency for International Development under President Jimmy Carter,[10] served as president and the CEO of National Public Radio (1983–93), and as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in the Clinton administration (1993–95). His grandfather Douglas Bennet was an economic adviser in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.[10]
Bennet grew up in Washington, D.C.; his father served as an aide to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, among other politicians. He was held back in second grade because of his dyslexia.[3][11][12] He enrolled at St. Albans School, an elite all-boys preparatory school, and served as a page on Capitol Hill.[13]
In 1987, Bennet earned his Bachelor of Arts in history from Wesleyan University,[14] the alma mater of his father and grandfather.[15] At Wesleyan he was a member of Beta Theta Pi. In 1993, Bennet earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.[16][17]
U.S. Senate[edit]
Appointment[edit]
On January 3, 2009, Bennet was named by Colorado governor Bill Ritter to fill the seat in the United States Senate vacated by United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on January 20.[18] Ritter chose Bennet after interviewing several prominent Colorado Democrats, and Bennet took the job with the blessing of Hickenlooper.[15] Upon taking office on January 21, 2009, he became the youngest senator in the 111th United States Congress for five days, until the appointment of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,[32] and he said he would seek election at the end of Salazar's term in 2010.[33]
In his January 2011 article in Time titled "Shaking Schools Up in an Already Tumultuous Year", Andrew J. Rotherham said of Bennet: "If the federal No Child Left Behind Act is modified this year, or if anything else of significance happens in Washington on education policy, this Colorado Democrat will be at the center of it."[34]
Michael Bennet
Michael Bennet
U.S. Senator from Colorado (2009–present)
May 2, 2019
February 11, 2020
US$6,853,752.77[103] (12/31/2019)
"Building Opportunity Together"
Personal life[edit]
On October 26, 1997, Bennet married Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney Susan Diane Daggett, in Marianna, Arkansas.[112][113] They have three daughters and reside in Denver's Congress Park neighborhood.[114]
Though not raised in an observant household, Bennet acknowledges his Jewish roots.[115][116][117] He has said that he was "raised with two different heritages, one [that] was Jewish and one [that] was Christian," and that he believes in God.[3]
His brother, James Bennet, was the editorial page director for The New York Times.[5]
On April 3, 2019, Bennet announced he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery later that month.[118][119] Following the surgery, Bennet's office said the procedure was "completely successful" and that he requires no further treatment.[120]
As of 2019, according to Forbes Magazine, Bennet's net worth was $15 million.[121]