Sen. Michael Bennet on Friday said former Gov. John Hickenlooper, his fellow Coloradan and former rival in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, would make an “excellent senator" should he decide to challenge Sen. Cory Gardner next year.
“I believe — because he's been, you know, an excellent mayor, an excellent governor — I don’t have any doubt that, if he decided to run, he’d be an excellent senator,” Bennet (D-Colo.
) told CNN.Hickenlooper on Thursday dropped out of the expansive field of Democrats vying to take on President Donald Trump in next year’s election. He has been courted for months by party leaders to instead challenge Gardner (R-Colo.), the GOP senator considered among the most vulnerable in next year's election.
In a video statement announcing his departure from the presidential race, Hickenlooper said he has “heard from so many Coloradans” who want him to run for Senate. “They remind me how much is at stake for our country and our state. I intend to give that some serious thought,” he said.
Hickenlooper, a former Denver mayor who served two terms as governor, has previously expressed reluctance to embark on such a campaign, asserting that he is “not cut out to be a senator.”
Hickenlooper’s path to Capitol Hill is far from assured, and it is unclear whether the former governor could clear the roughly dozen-strong field of Colorado Democrats vying to unseat Gardner.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine