This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates U.S Sen. Michael Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser faced off in their first televised debate ahead of the June 30 primary election Thursday evening.
During the hour-long live broadcast sponsored by CPR News, Denver7 and The Denver Post, the candidates touched on everything from their state policy goals and differences, healthcare costs, the state budget and the fight against the Trump administration as they make their case to voters.
The debate painted a contrast between Bennet’s focus on affordability and Weiser’s track record of using the power of the Attorney General’s office to rack up legal victories against the federal government as well as private companies such as opioid manufacturers.
Weiser is capping off eight years as the state’s top prosecutor and has worked on a range of issues during his time in elected office. Bennet has served in the U.S. Senate since 2009. He previously served as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
The candidates agree a lot more than they disagree During a lightning round of yes or no questions they had identical answers. Both disagree with Gov. Jared Polis that the sentence for former Mesa county clerk Tina Peters was too harsh. They support redistricting Colorado’s congressional map to create more blue seats for the 2028 election to counter GOP gerrymandering in other states. Neither back the state’s current approach to override local control to increase more housing. They both think nuclear power should be a part of the state’s energy future. They also support exempting education funding from state spending limits under TABOR, the taxpayers bill of rights.
Weiser contended he is the candidate most knowledgeable about Colorado.
“I know our state government inside and out, have plans on everything from public safety to water to working with Indian tribes,” he said, adding that he wants Bennet to remain in the Senate, noting his seniority in the chamber.
“Michael Bennet knows the Senate inside and out. That's where he can do the best good for Colorado,” Weiser said.
Meanwhile Bennet made the case that Weiser’s closeness to state government isn’t necessarily a good thing.
“I don't think the state government has done very much to solve our housing crisis, to solve our childcare crisis, to solve our healthcare crisis, to solve the fact that for the first time in a generation, businesses are moving out of our state because they can't succeed as well in Colorado. We need new leadership to help address those issues.”
Here are five takeaways from the first televised debate.
Areas of disagreement
The candidates have a lot of similarities when it comes to policy goals and approaches to governing but Weiser took aim at Bennet’s record as a senator and said his own campaign is rooted in Colorado and defending Colorado.
“I know in Washington DC sometimes there's pressure to go along, and Senator Bennet voted for more of Trump's cabinet than almost any Democrat in the Senate, including people, I know will talk about Brooke Rollins, for example, the agriculture secretary who's withheld SNAP benefits from Coloradans, 600,000 Coloradans would've gone hungry. I stood up. That's what Colorado does.”
Bennet said his campaign, unlike Weiser’s, is emphasizing how to restore the American dream in Colorado.
“Making sure that it's affordable, making sure that our kids can actually afford to live here and don't feel like they're being driven out of here. That is my focus and that's a very different focus than Phil Weiser’s who's spending his time already attacking my record tonight. By the way, I have voted against, for the record, 95% of Trump's nominees and voted for the Ag Secretary because her department is so important to protecting us against a wildfire.”
Affordability
Colorado’s high cost of living from housing to childcare, to healthcare continues to be the top issue voters from across the political spectrum say they want the state to tackle.
Bennet said Colorado needs to build more housing to help the next generation so young people don’t move out of the state. He said state leaders have to make hard choices and have a moral obligation to make the state affordable.
“We have to build more starter homes, we have to build more condominiums.”
Bennet said children believe at this point that state leaders are unwilling to make room for them in Colorado.
“There are too many folks who believe that there is no way their kids are going to be able to afford to live in this state. I think that it is critically important that we have a governor with the experience as I have of running tough organizations, balancing very tough budgets and telling the truth even when I've been in disagreement with my own party because I think we have to stop coloring inside the lines to restore the American dream here in Colorado.”
Weiser agrees that the state needs to build more middle income housing, he also discussed his focus on renters and said he has gone to bat for renters again and again.
“In the courts, in the Legislature, taking on companies like out-of-state corporate landlords who have these junk fees that are tricking people - like when you move out, they say, here's your moving out fee, and you were never told there was going to be one. That's not okay. I've gotten consumers and renters back millions of dollars. There are these major corporate entities trying to fix prices using algorithms. I push for legislation to address that.”
Pushing back against the Trump administration
Both candidates pointed to records of clashing with the Trump administration, be it through the dozens of lawsuits Weiser has filed against the federal government to Bennet’s pushback against Robert F. Kennedy’s “idiotic vaccine denial”.
Colorado has been a focus for the federal government, with cuts to funding and rejected disaster declarations. Bennet said he was concerned mass mobilization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement could take place in Colorado, similar to the events that occurred in Minneapolis.
“If you elect me governor, we are going to ensure that Donald Trump can’t send federal agents wearing masks into our state,” Bennet said, adding “I refuse to allow Donald Trump to define the future of Colorado or define our children’s future.”
Weiser’s office has sued the Trump Administration dozens of times and pointed to his family history as to why he’s passionate about immigration rights. Weiser’s mother was born in a Nazi concentration camp.
“That's why I take rights for immigrants so personally, that's why I'm committed to protecting due process of law, which means no one can be deported without having a hearing and a chance to make their case,” Weiser said.
Bennet criticized Weiser for not challenging the president enough during the first Trump administration, calling Weiser’s record "reprehensible."
Economy
On the topic of job growth, both candidates were quick to point to regulatory hurdles as among the reasons that the state’s economy is slowing.
“Regulations should be like garlic in cooking, just enough but never too much,” Weiser said, adding that he would be “chief marketing officer for Colorado” in an effort to recruit new businesses to the state.
Bennet similarly pointed to regulations, saying that too many businesses in Colorado feel like they’re “strangled by red tape.”
“Nothing we can do for our kids is possible if we don’t have a growing economy,” Bennet said, connecting the economic issue to his consistent point about making Colorado affordable for future generations.
That regulatory conversation bled over into a discussion of artificial intelligence regulation, particularly around the energy intensive data centers needed to power the technology. Bennet said he favored the “strongest common sense regulations.”
“We've got to be an economy, as I just said, that is dynamic, that's on the cutting edge and at the same time where we're protecting consumers and we're protecting people's civil rights,” Bennet said.
Weiser noted he favored strong privacy protections around AI, particularly for children. Weiser has been vocal for years about the risks of social media on kids and drew a connection to looming AI regulations.
“I want to make sure we're effectively protecting kids growing up from the harms of social media,” Weiser said. “Our kids are being preyed on right now.”
Budget
Colorado lawmakers had to balance a $1.5 billion budget shortfall this year, and state economists project next year’s budget won’t be much better. When asked how they would reign in the growing Medicaid costs that are ballooning and taking up a large portion of the state spending both candidates talked about a focus on patient care.
Weiser said patients need to be able to get the care they deserve.
“Where you don't have private equity rolling up and monopolizing practices. I took on such a matter and we don't have big pharma jacking up prescription prices so that patients are making terrible decisions between the drugs they need, or whether they can even buy food,” he said. “We have work to do.”
Bennet said he wants to focus on patients and doctors and less on insurance companies and venture capital.
“The opportunity for people to take better care of themselves at the outset, to get labs, to have annual exams, by the way, to make sure that they have access not just to physical healthcare but mental health care,” he said.
Bennet noted that Colorado is facing “a ridiculous nine % increase projected in the Medicaid budget over the next 10 years, every year,” and he wants to dramatically transform the way Medicaid is administered.
“I don't believe the current administration in Colorado has done a very good job administering Medicare and if I'm elected governor, we will transform it and the rest of the country will look to Colorado for leadership.”
Weiser corrected Bennet.
“We don't administer Medicare. That's a federal issue," Weiser said.
