Michael Farrand Bennet was born on November 28,1964 and is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009.
62 Facts About Michael Bennet
2.
Early in his career, Michael Bennet worked for Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.
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Michael Bennet received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, worked as a law clerk, and was counsel to the US Deputy Attorney General during the administration of Bill Clinton.
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Michael Bennet became superintendent of the Denver public school system in July 2005.
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Michael Bennet was appointed by Governor Bill Ritter to fill the US Senate seat vacated by Ken Salazar when Salazar became Secretary of the Interior in January 2009.
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Michael Bennet was elected in the 2010 Senate election, defeating Republican Ken Buck.
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Michael Bennet chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2014 cycle and was reelected to the Senate in 2016 and 2022.
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On May 2,2019, Michael Bennet announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
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Michael Bennet dropped out of the race on February 11,2020, after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.
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Michael Bennet's mother is Susanne Christine Bennet, a retired elementary school librarian and Jewish Holocaust survivor who was born in 1938 in Warsaw, Poland, and immigrated to the United States with her family in 1950.
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Michael Bennet's father is Douglas J Bennet, who was born in New Jersey, and served as an aide to Chester Bowles, then the US ambassador to India.
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Douglas Michael Bennet ran the United States Agency for International Development under President Jimmy Carter, served as president and the CEO of National Public Radio, and as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in the Clinton administration.
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Michael Bennet's grandfather Douglas Bennet was an economic adviser in Franklin D Roosevelt's administration.
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Michael Bennet grew up in Washington, DC; his father served as an aide to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, among other politicians.
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Michael Bennet was held back in second grade because of his dyslexia.
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Michael Bennet enrolled at St Albans School, an elite all-boys preparatory school, and served as a page on Capitol Hill.
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In 1987, Michael Bennet earned his Bachelor of Arts in history from Wesleyan University, the alma mater of his father and grandfather.
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In 1993, Michael Bennet earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.
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Michael Bennet then served as counsel to the Deputy Attorney General during the Bill Clinton administration.
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Michael Bennet worked for six years in Denver as managing director for the Anschutz Investment Company, where he led the reorganization of an oil company and helped consolidate three movie theater chains into the Regal Entertainment Group.
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Michael Bennet collaborated with educators and community members to develop the Denver Plan, a commitment to increase student success by focusing on higher expectations, better professional learning opportunities for educators, and deeper engagement with the community and stakeholders.
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In 2008 Michael Bennet persuaded the Denver Board of Education to enter into a 30-year, $750 million financial bond transaction with variable interest rates designed to fluctuate as economic conditions changed.
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Michael Bennet was among the many officials whose names were circulated for United States Secretary of Education in the Obama administration, a position eventually filled by Arne Duncan.
24.
On January 3,2009, Michael 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.
25.
Ritter chose Michael Bennet after interviewing several prominent Colorado Democrats, and Michael Bennet took the job with the blessing of Hickenlooper.
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Michael Bennet ran for election for a full term as senator from Colorado in the 2010 election.
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Michael Bennet received endorsements from President Obama, US Senator Mark Udall, and US Representatives Betsy Markey, Jared Polis, and John Salazar of the Colorado congressional delegation.
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Michael Bennet raised $7 million and had a four-to-one cash advantage over Romanoff.
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Michael Bennet portrayed Buck as an extremist conservative opposed to abortion and direct election of senators, while Buck and the groups supporting him characterized Michael Bennet as a big-spending liberal.
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Michael Bennet subsequently returned to Washington, DC in January 2011 to start a full six-year term.
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Michael Bennet was reelected to a second term on November 8,2016, defeating the Republican nominee, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn.
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Michael Bennet was reelected to a third term in 2022, defeating the Republican nominee, businessman Joe O'Dea, who was notably critical of former President Donald Trump.
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Michael Bennet sits on the following committees and subcommittees in the 117th United States Congress.
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Michael Bennet cosponsored the bipartisan STATES Act, proposed in the 115th US Congress by senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Gardner, which would exempt individuals or corporations in compliance with state cannabis laws from federal enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act.
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Michael Bennet cosponsored the SAFE Banking Act in 2019, which would provide marijuana businesses with access to banking services.
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In 2018 Michael Bennet criticized the Trump administration for attempting to cherry-pick data to misinform the public on marijuana use.
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Michael Bennet cosponsored the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act in 2018 and the Marijuana Justice Act in 2019, a pair of bills that would legalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act.
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Michael Bennet opposed Colorado's Amendment 64 to legalize cannabis in 2012.
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In 2009, Michael Bennet co-sponsored the Solar Manufacturing Jobs Creation Act, legislation that would have provided a tax credit to support solar manufacturing in the US The legislation was not enacted.
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Michael Bennet was one of the handful of Democratic senators who have supported construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, voting for it in 2013,2014, and 2015.
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In February 2021, Michael Bennet was one of seven Democratic senators to join Republicans in blocking a ban of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.
42.
In November 2018, Michael Bennet was one of 25 Democratic senators to cosponsor a resolution in response to findings of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment.
43.
In March 2019, Michael Bennet was an original cosponsor of a bipartisan bill intended to mandate that the Environmental Protection Agency declare per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as hazardous substances that can be addressed with cleanup funds via the EPA Superfund law and require that polluters undertake or pay for remediation within a year of the bill's enaction.
44.
In March 2018, Michael Bennet voted against tabling a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.
45.
In November 2018, Michael Bennet joined senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States.
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On January 24,2019, Michael Bennet gave an impromptu 25-minute speech on the Senate floor in response to comments by Senator Ted Cruz.
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In 2012, Michael Bennet joined then Colorado Senator Mark Udall in asking for stricter gun control, in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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Michael Bennet participated in the Chris Murphy gun control filibuster, demanding that gun laws be changed in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
49.
In 2013, Bennet voted against a Senate Amendment 711 to S 649, an amendment introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein that would have reinstated the federal assault weapons ban.
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Also in 2013 Michael Bennet voted to strengthen the background check system and to ban high-capacity magazines.
51.
Michael Bennet owns a shotgun, which he has called a "hunting shotgun".
52.
Michael Bennet voted in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Barack Obama on March 23,2010.
53.
In November 2009, when the bill was still working its way through Congress, Michael Bennet said that he would support health care reform even if it meant losing the election.
54.
In 2016, describing the healthcare costs in western and central Colorado as among the highest in the United States, Michael Bennet said he "didn't have answers" and called it "next to impossible" to fix the Affordable Care Act given partisan attitudes at that time.
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Michael Bennet is an original co-sponsor of the Equality Act.
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Michael Bennet was previously mentioned as a possible presidential candidate following his viral response to Senator Ted Cruz in January 2019.
57.
Michael Bennet failed to qualify for the remainder of the debates.
58.
Michael Bennet failed to qualify for the Iowa and New Hampshire debate, making him the candidate to fail to qualify for a debate the most times.
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Michael Bennet received 164 votes in the Iowa caucuses, and 958 in the New Hampshire primary.
60.
Michael Bennet dropped out of the race on February 11,2020, the night of the New Hampshire primary.
61.
On October 26,1997, Michael Bennet married Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney Susan Diane Daggett, in Marianna, Arkansas.
62.
Michael Bennet 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.