U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is running for governor, told a newspaper this month that he favors suspending Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program.

“I think it’s right to suspend it for now and to try to see whether there’s any way to get back to a place where we’re implementing the original plan with fidelity,” he told the Durango Herald’s editorial board on Feb. 13. “But if we’re not able to implement with fidelity, then we shouldn’t continue.”

Back in January, Bennet appeared a little less certain in an interview with the Steamboat Pilot.

“Asked about the reintroduction of wolves — one of the most contentious issues in Northwest Colorado — Bennet wouldn’t answer with a simple yes or no,” the Steamboat Pilot reported on Feb. 16.

Bennet told the Pilot he met with Routt County ranchers and that the state had not followed the process well.

The senator said the pause for 2026, due in part to the state’s inability to source wolves, “was appropriate and could give the state time to ‘regroup and reconsider how to go forward.'”

The wolf issue has drawn attention from other gubernatorial candidates.

Greg Lopez, formerly a Republican candidate for governor who switched to running as an independent, led a coalition that wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in October, seeking documentation on permits and authorizations issued by the federal agency to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for the importation of the Canadian wolves in early 2025.

Lopez also testified in November, during a Washington state hearing, where Colorado’s then-CPW director, Jeff Davis, asked Washington’s wildlife commission for wolves. The commission voted, 8-1, to deny that request.

In October, nine Republican candidates for governor were asked in a forum at the Denver Press Club whether they support removing wolves from the endangered species ;ist. That group, which at the time included Lopez, as well as Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Mark Baisley, all said “yes.”

In addition to Bennet, five other Democratic candidates have filed to run for governor, including Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Weiser’s campaign declined to comment on his position regarding potential suspension of the program.

Last July, he told KVNF that wolf reintroduction is a flashpoint, and that rural communities “don’t feel like they’re at the table.”

“The voters voted for wolf reintroduction, and that’s the law,” Weiser told the radio station. “But how we implement that law matters. People need to be heard, and their local realities need to be respected.’”

Voters narrowly passed the wolf reintroduction program in 2020, with support almost entirely from the Front Range.

Almost every Western Slope county, where 25 wolves were relocated in late 2023 and early 2025, rejected the ballot measure. Since their reintroduction, 12 of the 25 reintroduced wolves have died.

The animals have been responsible for nearly 100 livestock and working dog deaths in 2024 and 2025. Wolves most recently killed a dog in Jackson County.