As the 2026 Democratic primary for governor of Colorado approaches, voters will be asked to choose between two capable leaders: Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Both are fine public servants, with significant public service records and strong accomplishments.
I am supporting Weiser to be our next governor.
In Weiser, Coloradans can elevate a proven advocate and fighter for Coloradans’ rights. He has challenged corporations that violate our laws, fought back against illegal corporate mergers and stood up to the Trump Administration’s near-daily lawlessness. He is a fearless leader who we can trust to show up, listen and get results. And Weiser’s leadership at the state level – as a tremendous attorney general – means that he is very well prepared for the governor’s office and to lead our state without missing a beat.
By voting for Weiser for governor, I also will be voting to keep Bennet, a longtime U.S. senator, at the job we elected him to in Washington. As a former U.S. senator for Colorado, I know firsthand the debilitating impact a Bennet victory would have on Colorado’s influence in the U.S. Capitol and on national politics.
Our state – and the entire county – is grappling with the skyrocketing cost of healthcare, a crisis of affordability for working families and mounting education costs. These are not just local issues – far from it. They are national challenges. And they require the heavy-hitting federal leverage that only experienced national lawmakers can provide. To solve these problems, we need our most experienced federal leaders where national policy is actually made – and that’s in Washington, D.C.
In Congress, the ability to influence public policy is a currency earned through time and seniority. Bennet, having served in Congress for nearly two decades, is poised to reach the zenith of the U.S. Senate’s institutional power. He currently holds high-ranking seats on the Senate Finance Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, and he is in line to be the next chair of the powerful Agriculture Committee – the committee that controls life-saving food assistance programs.
Bennet is no longer just “at the table” in Washington – he is helping set it.
For Colorado, the next Congress will be a defining era. Democrats are widely expected to expand their margins and possibly control one or both chambers in Congress. And major legislation is on the horizon. With crucial laws like the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act and the Rural Hospital Revitalization Act in the balance, Bennet is poised to help lead the fight in Congress to lower healthcare premiums and stabilize our rural healthcare infrastructure.
And he has expressed a desire to reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its tactics in recent campaign ads. Yet Bennet’s current role has direct oversight and budget-setting authority over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – this is where he is best positioned to improve federal immigration enforcement. Not the governorship.
If Coloradans vote for Bennet to vacate his post – and become governor instead – we would effectively be firing our most senior national advocate. And we’d be doing so at the exact moment he would have the seniority to chair committees that dictate federal tax law, Student Loan Reform and Western water policy.
Replacing Bennet with an unknown freshman senator would mean Colorado would move from the 50-yard line to the nosebleed section, losing decades of accumulated legislative capital.
He can wield this outsized influence as our senator because we, the Colorado voters, vested him with this power and seniority by sending him back to Washington time and again for nearly 20 years. This investment belongs to all Coloradans as well as Bennet – and we should not squander it or willingly forfeit it. And that makes it especially frustrating that he announced his run for governor just two years into his third six-year term in the Senate. We just had reelected him to keep up this work – and we need him to continue it.
Leadership is about more than filling a role – it is about maximizing the state’s total ability to deliver the best public policy outcomes for Coloradans.
Bennet is well-positioned to do his best work for us in the U.S. Senate. We need him there – and we should keep him there.
By voting for Phil Weiser for governor, we will get a stellar governor and protect our hard-earned seniority in Washington – securing a brighter future for Colorado.
Let’s not give up our seat at the head of the table for a spot at the back of the line.
Tim Wirth was a U.S. congressman and senator from Colorado (1973-1993), undersecretary of state and president of the U.N. Foundation.