Michael Bennet is the most important Democratic Senator you don’t know – but you know his policies

Senator Michael Bennet hardly looks like anyone’s idea of a progressive hero. The Colorado Democrat often uses his husky voice to discuss wonky topics like why Democrats should not lift the cap on state and local tax deductions that Republicans put in place with the Trump tax cuts, and sounds like the former superintendent of Denver Public Schools he once was.

“Well, look, I don’t think the American people sent us to Washington to cut taxes for rich people,” he told The Independent in an interview. “And the reality is we’ve had since 2001 about $8 trillion in tax cuts, almost all of that has gone to the wealthiest people in this country during a time when we’ve got the greatest income inequality that we’ve had since the late 1920s.”

When he ran for president in 2019 and 2020, he dropped out without winning any delegates and regularly criticized Medicare for All proposals by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as being unrealistic.

“I think I describe it as my not very well noticed presidential campaign,” he joked.

Mr Bennet launched his campaign largely after he gave a speech on the floor of the US Senate floor excoriating Republican Senator Ted Cruz during the government shutdown of 2018 and 2019. During that time, he criticised Mr Cruz for shutting down the government in 2013. But the viral moment failed to make him launch as progressives largely supported Mr Sanders and Ms Warren while moderate voters preferred his colleague Senator Amy Klobuchar or Pete Buttigieg. Od course, voters ultimately picked President Joe Biden.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and when Congress passed the CARES Act under the Trump administration, Mr Bennet teamed up with Senator Ron Wyden to tack on an additional $600 a week on