BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, 56, was appointed to his position in January 2009 when former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter tapped him to fill the seat of U.S. Senator Ken Salazar when Salazar resigned to take a position as Secretary of the Interior in the Obama administration. Bennet successfully ran for election in 2010, besting Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck by less than two percentage points. In his bid for re-election in 2016, Bennet defeated Republican El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn by just under six percentage points. The senator will be up for re-election for a third full term on November 8, 2022.
Bennet graduated from Wesleyan University and Yale Law School. On May 2, 2019, Bennet announced a bid for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, an effort he ended on February 11, 2020.
With a year to go until the November 8, 2022 election, eight Republicans have announced their intention to be their party’s standard bearer to challenge Bennett. The Republican primary to choose a candidate will occur on June 28, 2022. Of the eight candidates who have announced, three have filed campaign reports with the Federal Election Commission as of September 30, the latest date for which information is available on www.fec.gov.
Eli Bremer, a graduate of the Air Force Academy who served as a commissioned active duty and reserve officer for 14 years and is a former U.S. Olympian and former chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, has raised $253,838. He announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on August 10, 2021, when he said, “I am concerned that the country I have represented (in the military and in the Olympics) is being sold out by self- interested politicians. I’ve traveled the world, and I’ve seen how special we are in America. Having been raised in Colorado I have also seen how special our state is. We deserve a senator who wants to be a voice for Colorado rather than climbing the political ladder.” Bremer’s campaign website is www.eliforsenate.com.
Erik Aadland, a graduate of West Point who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and won two Bronze Stars, declared his candidacy on June 4, 2021. He has raised $185,555. Aadland says, “Two combat tours of duty have taught me that… war exacts a terrible burden and (there is) more that unites us than divides us. But here and now the progressive movement has embraced a socialist future. It is a threat to our finances today and our freedom tomorrow…We need solutions, not bureaucracy and bigger government, to solve the many issues of our time—an invasion at the border, restarting an economy after a global crisis, a shortage of workers at the same time we see high levels of unemployment. We cannot “spend our way to prosperity” while enslaving our children to pay our debt.” His website is https://aadlandforsenate.com
Peter Yu is a first-generation immigrant who came to the United States in 1969. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Fort Lewis College and has served in senior executive roles at Wyndham Worldwide and HSBC Bank. Yu, who announced his candidacy on July 16, 2021, says “Our government is not here to provide for us, but instead to provide opportunities.… We need to remind all elected officials that they are representatives and work for the citizens of this state and nation. These elected officials must remember that the government does not know what is best for the people of this country but that the people know what is best for themselves. The responsibilities of our elected representatives are to create a foundation and infrastructure that allows all individuals regardless of their race, gender, or color to have equal rights and freedoms so that the opportunity to be successful is available to each and every American.” Yu has raised $81,810 in campaign contributions to date. His website is www.yuforsenate.com
Other announced candidates for the Republican primary for U.S. Senate are Gino Campana, Deborah Flora, Ron Hanks, Juli Henry, and Joe O’Dea. None of them have yet filed campaign reports of funds raised or spent with the Federal Election Commission.
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