The Democratic races in the state primaries in June of 2026 will decide the elections for most statewide offices. The top competition is between current Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

There’s no time like the present to begin the analysis of who has the most promising record for helping Colorado be Colorado.

The two enterprising men moved to Colorado in the late 1990s. Bennet joined the Anschutz Investment Group as a managing director and Weiser started his professional academic career at University of Colorado after working at the Department of Justice and clerking for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bennet was the corporate restructure artist, building Regal Cinemas through corporate mergers. At the same time, Weiser as a legal scholar and academic was interested in Anschutz’s Qwest telecom as a dominant presence when cable for internet and innovation in phone systems received attention in the legal community related to regulation and deregulation.

During this time, Weiser founded CU’s Silicon Flatirons Center to examine the intersections of trust and antitrust, competition, and the need for cooperation between federal and state agencies to monitor and regulate telecom markets. Anschutz’s Qwest venture fell apart just as Bennet left his role as managing director to work as chief of staff for then-Mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper. Weiser was named dean of the CU law school. Both men had prestigious roles in prestigious Colorado institutions: the city of Denver and the University of Colorado.

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Bennet moved from Hickenlooper’s office to Denver Public Schools as superintendent in 2005 and stayed for about three-and-a-half years. His beliefs in competition and market forces influenced his tenure at DPS. He restructured DPS compensation to focus on merit. He closed schools including, most prominently, Manual High School in 2006. From Bennet’s tenure to 2019, 35 schools closed in Denver and 65 new schools opened. DPS with its declining enrollment is now experiencing more school closures.

There’s a lot of argument over the relative successes of Bennet’s school restructuring policies. DPS‘s graduation rates are higher. Academic progress is up and down, and too many schools are segregated by race and income. Manual High School is reopened with a diverse population. Its dislocated students from 2006 received honorary graduation diplomas in 2023. Superintendent Alex Marrero expressed regret. Debate over the future of DPS has not budged since Bennet took over, with restructuring reformers engaged in a long battle with pro-neighborhood district-school proponents. This battle will play out in the 2025 November school board election.

Meanwhile, Bennet moved on to the U.S. Senate where his role supporting Colorado’s interests have been modest. He got President Joe Biden to insert $79 million into the Infrastructure Reinvestment Act to plug orphan wells. Since, $64 million has been granted, but the Department of Interior is slow-walking the remaining $15 million. Some argue the oil companies should take care of the orphan well clean-up, not taxpayers. Bennet has been instrumental in reworking well bonding to cover clean-up costs. That legislation was completed in 2024.

Bennet was one of five Democrats, along with Sen. Hickenlooper, who voted to support Doug Burgum as U.S. Secretary of Interior. The day Burgum was sworn into office he signed six secretary’s orders to expedite fossil fuel extraction. Bennet, to his credit, has a history of supporting renewables and reducing methane from the atmosphere. In voting for Burgum, Bennet stated he had to pick his battles. Burgum expressed his thanks for Bennet’s vote with his climate-heating initiatives.

Weiser was elected State Attorney General in 2020. Right away he moved to help consumers with the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. He clawed back $250 million for residents in refunds, credits and debt relief. He grabbed another $6.6 million from polluters of the Bonita Peak Mining District for waterway remediation. He attacked the opioid crisis with litigation that brought in $750 million in settlement funds to help with addiction recovery and other programs. He worked on PFAS contamination to clean up lands and waters.

Since Trump came to office, he’s protected Coloradans by leading and joining more than 30 lawsuits to prevent implementation of President Trump’s executive orders. At least half of these suits have produced injunctions against the orders. Weiser is leader on the constitutional birthright question. He sued to protect funds for AmeriCorps, rural health and youth mental health. He’s challenging the layoffs of federal employees. He’s filed suit to make Trump’s Department of Education distribute appropriated money, especially funds for English Language Learning, to the Colorado Department of Education.

Elections are a big issue for Weiser. He’s sued to stop Trump’s executive order on showing citizenship papers to vote and requiring ballot returns by Election Day. He objects to using state data to help Immigration Customs and Enforcement to identify and arrest immigrants, initiating an investigation of Mesa County sheriffs who gave information on an undocumented person stopped for a minor traffic violation to ICE, resulting in her arrest.

Both candidates for governor have long records of work in Colorado. There are important differences that can give voters a feel for how they may lead the state forward.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.