Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who campaigned for president on a promise to repair a damaged Washington, ended his bid for the Democratic nomi
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who campaigned for president on a promise to repair a damaged Washington, ended his bid for the Democratic nomination on Tuesday after a dismal exhibiting within the New Hampshire major.
Mr. Bennet had staked all his hopes on New Hampshire, holding 50 city corridor occasions there within the 10 weeks main as much as the first and campaigning solely there within the closing stretch, even on the evening of the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. Bennet, 55, a former faculty superintendent, managed to lift his nationwide profile throughout his bid, however he paddled alongside whereas others sped forward. His guess was {that a} grass-roots marketing campaign may raise him: dozens of city corridor occasions, unscreened viewers questions, direct contact with voters. However he didn’t register in polls, which saved him out of each debate after July, and he crisscrossed major states with a workers far smaller than a few of his opponents.
He was additionally hampered by his late entry: He joined a Democratic field that had already swelled to 20 candidates. Simply as he was set to declare his candidacy, he was identified with prostate most cancers and paused to endure surgical procedure earlier than saying a run for the White Home.
Mr. Bennet took a center path within the race, and often warned that the Democratic Occasion was susceptible to transferring too far to the left. On well being care, he touted his Medicare-X well being plan, which might construct on the Reasonably priced Care Act however not upend the present system, a distinction to extra progressive proposals. On immigration, he opposed decriminalizing illegal border crossings, whereas candidates like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro, the previous housing secretary who has since left the race, stated they supported such a transfer.
He argued that his “Real Deal” agenda was extra broadly interesting than different candidates’ platforms, and leaned laborious on an endorsement from James Carville, the lead strategist behind Invoice Clinton’s 1992 marketing campaign, who stated he was scared that the opposite Democratic candidates couldn’t defeat President Trump.
Mr. Bennet’s pitch was, greater than something, a return to normalcy. “Should you elect me president, I promise you received’t have to consider me for 2 weeks at a time,” he tweeted in August.
He had a small breakout second in early January, earlier than his marketing campaign announcement, when he gave a fiery speech on the Senate flooring, excoriating his Republican colleague Ted Cruz and shouting repeatedly as he accused Mr. Cruz of shedding “crocodile tears” over unpaid authorities staff. The speech was seen tens of millions of instances on-line, nevertheless it failed to realize him the help he wanted.
Mr. Bennet’s maternal grandparents have been immigrants who fled the Warsaw Ghetto, finally transferring to New York. As a senator, he was greatest recognized for serving to to craft a sweeping immigration reform invoice in 2013. The laws, which might have offered greater than $46 billion to bolster border safety whereas additionally carving a path to citizenship, handed within the Senate however by no means made it to the Home.
Mr. Bennet’s youthful brother, James, is the editorial web page editor of The New York Occasions. Final 12 months, The Times said in a press release that James Bennet would recuse himself “from any work generated by the opinion desk associated to the 2020 presidential election.” The association was anticipated to final for so long as Michael Bennet was a candidate within the race.