Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, is planning to announce on Friday that he will run for governor next year, according to two people with knowledge of his preparations.
The move by Mr. Bennet, who has served in the Senate since 2009 and ran for president in 2020, makes him the latest Democratic senator to plan to move on from Congress. He is not up for re-election in the Senate until 2028, meaning he can keep his seat as he pursues the governor’s mansion. Axios earlier reported Mr. Bennet’s planned move.
Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat who has led the state since 2019, cannot run for re-election because of term limits. Colorado, once a political battleground, has not elected a Republican governor since 2002, making Mr. Bennet a strong contender to be the next chief executive of the state.
But first, he will face Phil Weiser, the state’s Democratic attorney general, who has already announced a bid. Mr. Weiser has emerged as a high-profile opponent of the Trump administration, joining with other state attorneys general to file lawsuits over a series of policies and executive orders.
With Mr. Bennet’s national brand and strong fund-raising ability, he is likely to become the front-runner in the governor’s race. His entrance is also likely to dissuade other possible Democratic candidates from jumping into the contest.
A former Denver Public Schools superintendent, Mr. Bennet was appointed to the Senate in 2009, and has won re-election three times. He ran as a moderate candidate in his party’s crowded 2020 presidential primary race, but his campaign failed to catch fire and he did not qualify for most of the debates.
In recent weeks, Mr. Bennet has emerged as vocal critic not only of Mr. Trump but also of his own party. He has argued that Democrats have failed to connect with working-class voters and must find a way to reinvent their party’s brand.
“The Democratic Party needs to use this moment of having been repudiated at the national level, to figure out a creative and imaginative agenda for the 21st century that’s going to lift the fortunes of working people and the middle class all across this country,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month.
He has also expressed frustration with the Senate, denouncing its polarization and the inability of members to work across the aisle to pass major legislation. He has criticized Democrats in the Senate as lacking leadership and a strategy.
Mr. Bennet’s decision is part of larger trend of Democrats heading for the exits, either for retirement or to pursue governor’s mansions in their home states. Their desire to leave reflects the party’s relative powerlessness in a Republican-controlled Congress and the uphill battle to seize back the Senate.
In the House, several ambitious Democrats have announced bids for governor in their states, including Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey.
In the Senate, three Democrats — Tina Smith of Minnesota, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire — have said they will not seek re-election in 2026, with more retirements expected to come.
