Michael Bennet: I’m running for governor because Washington D.C. is too broken to answer Colorado’s needs

My parents and grandparents raised me to have the highest hopes for our country. My dad was a public servant in Washington D.C. and a college president, and my mom was a school librarian and an immigrant to this country. She and her parents miraculously survived the Holocaust and settled in America to rebuild their shattered lives.

My parents’ childhoods could not have been more different, but their families taught them we have a responsibility to build opportunity for one another and for our country’s future. My wife Susan and I share those values, and they have informed her work as an environmental and land use lawyer and mine as a school superintendent and Colorado’s U.S. Senator. Now I hope to carry on that fight as the next governor of Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet jumps into governor’s race, saying he wants “to forge a better politics”

I have worked alongside Coloradans to provide more opportunities in this state. Together, we led the fight to expand the Child Tax Credit, which cut taxes for 96% of Colorado families and reduced our nation’s childhood poverty rate by half. We pushed to end surprise hospital bills, limit seniors’ prescription drug costs, and provide high-speed internet to every household. In the last four years, we brought $12 billion in federal funds to every corner of Colorado to upgrade our infrastructure, produce clean energy, and modernize our water systems. Along the way, we protected many of our treasured landscapes, including Camp Hale, Chimney Rock, Brown’s Canyon, and Camp Amache.

Unlike most Coloradans, President Donald Trump does not believe we have a shared responsibility. He has aimed a wrecking ball at our democracy, asking not “What can I do for my country?” but, instead, “What is in it for me?” His economic policies will make our country even less fair and his rhetoric is intended to divide us so he remains in charge. No president’s values have been more at war with what our parents taught us and their hopes for our country.

Meanwhile, it is getting harder to live in Colorado. Housing, groceries, and child care cost too much. Health care and mental health care aren’t available to everyone. Our schools and small businesses are struggling.

Our best solutions to these challenges will not come from the broken politics practiced in Washington. They will come from us – and that’s why I am running for governor.

Colorado already is a model of leadership for our country. We have passed a robust Child Tax Credit; offered free, full-day kindergarten to Colorado’s families; and fought climate change. But too many Coloradans cannot afford a middle-class life. Those of us who are parents worry that our kids will never be able to raise their own families here.

Colorado’s challenges are not unique. They are shared by people living all over America and result from unfair, trickle-down economic decisions our country has pursued since the 1980s. In Colorado and across the country, we need to strengthen our middle class and build an economy that works better for everyone.