U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is running for reelection in one of the most-closely watched congressional races in the country, gave the centerpiece speech at the Democratic Party state convention Saturday in Loveland. His talk energized the crowd of some 4,000 party delegates and drew repeat thrumming interruptions from Bernie Sanders supporters, who chanted for Bennet to join the majority of delegates in the hall in supporting Sanders and his insurgent national candidacy.

“I know there are a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters in the crowd. I know there’s a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters in this crowd. And I’m glad we’re having this debate in our party, particularly when I see what’s going on on the other side,” Bennet said. “But when the primary is over, we will come together to elect a Democratic president of the United States, win this Senate seat and control a Democratic majority in the United States Senate and right here in Colorado.”

“Change your vote! Change your vote!” chanted the crowd.

Bennet is one of the state party’s 12 superdelegates and, like most all of his fellow superdelegates — elected officials and party leaders — he had gone on record in support of Clinton but told Denver Post reporter John Frank on Saturday that he would support Sanders, “the nominee with the most pledged delegates,:” as Frank put it on Twitter.

Sanders came out of the convention this weekend with a commanding lead among Colorado delegates to the national party’s July nominating convention in Philadelphia. He won 41 delegates. Clinton won 25.

Near the end of the afternoon, delegates moved from their seats in lines inch by inch to the front of the hall, cast 3,044 valid ballots Saturday, of which 1,915 went to Sanders and 1,129 to Clinton.

In his speech, Bennet worked with the see-sawing crowd but stayed on message, lambasting Republicans to enthusiastic cheers.

“Have you met this guy, Ted Cruz? I can’t believe we even have the same job title,” Bennet said. “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I have actually watched the Republican debates. For a while I thought they were pretty amusing, like when one of their candidates said he didn’t believe in climate change because he said he had just came back from New Hampshire where there’s snow and ice everywhere.”

Bennet compared Republican calls to survey Muslim neighborhoods in America and bar Syrian refugees from entering the country to the populist political rhetoric of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, the infamous civil rights-era segregationist.  

Bennet celebrated Democratic unity around key issues, including the need to address climate change, protect abortion rights, demand equality for members of the LGBT community, and oppose what he described as failed and disproved “trickle down” economic theory.

“We may have our differences in this room, and some of them may even be profound, but we’re not going to (accomplish many of our goals) with Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as president or with a Republican-controlled Senate,” Bennet said.

But then the chants started up again: “Change your vote! Change your vote!”

Many of the thousands of Sanders supporters at the Budweiser Event Center were new to the state’s caucus and delegate-selection process, and many of them scoffed at the idea that they would vote for Clinton, a longtime member of the political establishment. Some said they planned to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

— Ramsey@coloradostatesman.com