Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet took a good bit of Denver to Washington, D.C., Monday as he debated the nomination of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education in the Trump administration.

Last weekend brought D.C. to Denver as he met in LoDo with Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Monday night on the floor of the Senate Bennet recalled his time as superintendent turning around a struggling Denver city school system. A child’s neighborhood and family income shouldn’t determine the quality of his or her education, Bennet said.

The senior senator from Colorado said before the debate that he would not support DeVos, because  her “dogmatic approach” would leave many students behind educationally. He invited her to come to Denver to see its version of school choice during a confirmation hearing last month.

Monday night he urged Trump to look to Denver for guidance on turning around the nation’s schools.

“We used the levers of federal law, strong accountability and civil rights protections as the backbone of change,” Bennet said. “We could not have made the changes we did had it not been for the national demand for improvement in our schools.”

Bennet summarized the turnaround that helped lift him to an appointment to the Senate in 2009, when then-Sen. Ken Salazar joined President Obama’s cabinet.

“We empowered schools through autonomy and worked to create a culture of shared learning and innovation focused on all ships rising,” he said, paraphrasing Ronald Reagan. “We demanded quality and we implemented strong accountability. High performing schools were replicated and rewarded and expanded. Low-performing schools had to improve or be shut down.

“We made tough decisions. We closed schools. I sat in living rooms and in classrooms and in gymnasiums with parents, urging them to demand more from the school district, even if it meant that their child had to go to a different school.

“Along with concerned citizens, teachers and principals I went door-to-door to enroll kids in new schools.”

He said Denver leaders, under then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, rethought the education model, with teachers leading the way.

“I’m the first to say, and I always will be the first to say, that we still have a lot of work to do to make sure the ZIP code Denver’s children are born into doesn’t determine the education they receive,” Bennet said. “… Now we need to make sure the nation is moving the in the right direction.”

As for that meeting in LoDo, the Denver Business Journal’s Ed Sealover caught sight of it, and Bennet spokeswoman Laurie Cipriano confirmed it on Monday.

She provided a statement from Bennet, himself, but he didn’t say how he would vote.

“I look forward to examining Judge Gorsuch’s record and learning more about his judicial philosophy through his writings and his confirmation hearing,” Bennet said. “I expect Judge Gorsuch will receive the fair consideration that Judge Garland was denied.”

Cipriano acknowledged the office is hearing from lots of callers, but it started well before the Gorsuch nomination. Colorado Republicans are putting a full-court press on Bennet to support a fellow Coloradan – albeit one whose views on abortion and other issues come nowhere near Bennet’s Democratic values.

“Calls and letters to our office have increased significantly since the inauguration,” Cipriano said. “Our team is working hard to answer calls and listen to what our constituents have to say.

“If Coloradans cannot get through by phone, we encourage them to visit our website where they can send us a message on a specific issue or request help with casework. We work to respond as quickly as possible.”