{"id":37913,"date":"2022-10-10T23:40:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T05:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-stumps-in-durango-calls-on-young-voters\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:41:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:41:01","slug":"sen-michael-bennet-stumps-in-durango-calls-on-young-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-michael-bennet-stumps-in-durango-calls-on-young-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Michael Bennet stumps in Durango, calls on young voters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet spoke in front of about 40 voters during a campaign stop Monday in Durango, taking the opportunity to urge voters to turn out and vote for candidates at all levels of government. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet held a campaign event Monday in downtown Durango and emphasized, among a variety of his accomplishments, the need for young voters to participate in the upcoming midterm elections. Bennet, who has served in the Senate since 2009, faces a challenge from self-styled moderate Republican Joe O\u2019Dea.<\/p>\n

Bennet appeared on the patio of Carver Brewing Co., speaking for 45 minutes before a crowd of about 40 supporters. He began by listing Democrats\u2019 recent accomplishments \u2013 the list was long. It included the recent infrastructure bill, the postal reform act that repealed the U.S. Postal Service\u2019s mandate to pre-fund future pensions, the CHIPS Act that will invest in returning semiconductor production to the U.S., recent gun-control legislation and the Inflation Reduction Act, which Bennet called \u201cthe most significant piece of climate legislation that any government in the world has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more important than any of those accomplishments, Bennet emphasized the need for voter participation. He began the event by making this point, sneaking in a joke about his colleague Sen. Amy Klobuchar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sick and tired of Amy Klobuchar telling everybody that Minnesota has the No. 1 voter turnout in America,\u201d Bennet said. \u201cShe always goes out of her way to say that when I\u2019m there because she knows Colorado is No. 2, we have the No. 2 voter turnout. So let\u2019s be No. 1!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet\u2019s speech included relatively little mention of his opponent, save for a few opportune jabs highlighting O\u2019Dea\u2019s contradictory claim to fiscal conservatism and support for Trump-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Instead, Bennet spring-boarded off the lasting damage of the Trump administration, calling on voters to seize the opportunity to continue moving past the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n

One constituent made it a point to thank Bennet for his work to designate Camp Hale as a national monument, which President Joe Biden is expected do this week. Bennet had made the conservation of the World War II-era training at the camp a priority in the CORE Act<\/a>, a piece of legislation that has stalled in Congress.<\/p>\n

Teal Lehto, a member of the La Plata County Democrats executive committee, called on Bennet to generate enthusiasm among young voters given that 18- to 24-year-olds have historically displayed the lowest numbers of voter turnout.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people are frustrated,\u201d Lehto said. \u201cThey turned out to vote for Biden, even though they didn\u2019t really like Biden. And we didn\u2019t really get a whole lot out of the deal. And so when I\u2019m talking to young voters, and I\u2019m trying to encourage them to vote, there\u2019s a general sense of apathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Bennet offered an ominous warning and highlighted several recent legislative accomplishments as points of inspiration for young voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t show up, it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a guarantee \u2013 that\u2019s a guarantee that things are going to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also offered recent judicial nominations and legislative action to fight climate change as key talking points for young voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime as a young person, reaching out to a politician, you have to lower your expectations because you\u2019re going to get a politician\u2019s answer to whatever you ask,\u201d Lehto said after the event. \u201cI did find a little bit of inspiration in what he said in that there\u2019s really nothing to lose. The two options are vote and maybe get something better or not vote and never get anything better, and I\u2019d rather try maybe than never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballots will be mailed Oct. 17 in La Plata County. A link to the state\u2019s voter registration form and more details about the election can be found on the county\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018There is no alternative,\u2019 senator says in making an appeal to Democratic electors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1565,826,774,1126,1509,25,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-michael-bennet","tag-political-campaigns","tag-political-candidates","tag-politics-general","tag-state-elections","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83832,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37913\/revisions\/83832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37913"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}