Colorado Muslim Vote

Posted April 9, 2026

 

Months ago, Colorado Muslim Vote (a project dedicated to mobilizing and empowering the Muslim community across Colorado) began organizing a gubernatorial debate with Senator Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser. We wanted Muslim, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian Coloradans to have a direct, structured opportunity to hear from the candidates seeking to lead this state. Simple enough. Civic engagement 101.

 

Then the demands from Senator Michael Bennet’s office started coming in.

 

Senator Bennet’s team said he didn’t want to share the stage with Phil Weiser. We thought that was unusual but we wanted him there, so we agreed to turn it into a forum. Then his team asked for the list of questions in advance, and we provided them with the topics. Then they raised concerns about security and indicated that the forum seemed unsafe and not worth attending. We set aside the racist undertones of that statement and simply committed to providing security.

 

Then came the next demand: no questions about his record on Gaza. This time, we said no. The right to ask an elected official about his votes is not a bargaining chip. It is the entire point.

 

Elected officials do not get to cherry-pick their accountability

 

After all of our concessions, after months of planning, after our community had cleared schedules and organized in good faith around every previous demand his campaign made, Senator Bennet’s team pulled out. And in what I can only describe as a breathtaking act of condescension, they offered a consolation prize: Senator Bennet would be willing to meet privately with Muslim leadership if they wanted to ask questions about his record.

 

So let’s talk about that record. Senator Bennet voted against Bernie Sanders’ resolutions to block over $675 million in weapons sales to Israel, including a shipment of 1,000-pound bombs and thousands of guidance kits, and a separate transfer of assault rifles destined for Israeli forces. A majority of Senate Democrats voted to support those resolutions. Bennet was not among them.

 

And we cannot ignore the question of who is funding this posture. Senator Bennet has accepted millions of dollars from pro-Israel PACs, including AIPAC, the same lobbying organization that endorsed over 100 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results. AIPAC defended its actions by stating that its sole purpose is to support “pro-Israel” candidates and that it will not become “selective” by applying other litmus tests, such as those related to the January 6th insurrection. When a sitting senator takes that kind of money and then votes to keep the weapons flowing, Coloradans have the right to ask whose interests he is actually representing.

 

This is taxpayer money being sent in the form of bombs and bullets, at the expense of it going to fund our healthcare, housing, education, etc. And when his constituents organized a forum to ask him about it, his campaign responded by demanding that the subject be taken off the table entirely.

 

That is not a policy disagreement. That is corruption of the democratic process itself.

 

Elected officials do not get to cherry-pick their accountability. They cast votes that affect people’s lives. They take positions. And then, in a democracy, they must stand before the people those decisions affect and defend them. They don’t get to decide which consequences of their record are too uncomfortable to discuss.

 

If Senator Bennet thinks his record on Gaza is defensible, then he should defend it. Make the argument. Sit across from constituents who disagree with him and make his case. That is what leadership requires.

 

There are families across Colorado who have spent the last two years watching the news from Gaza with a particular kind of dread. The dread of people who know the faces in the rubble, who light candles for cousins and aunts and childhood friends. Those families deserve a governor who will at minimum look them in the eye. Who will sit across a table, hear the questions, and answer for his record — even imperfectly, even painfully. That takes courage. Senator Bennet has demonstrated that he doesn’t have it.

 

There is a broader pattern here worth noting. This is a candidate who skipped the caucus process, bypassing grassroots Democratic voters in favor of a petition strategy backed by out-of-state billionaire money, including $1.25 million from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This is a candidate who voted to confirm Trump cabinet nominees and then bristled when asked to account for it. And now this is a candidate who attempted to pre-censor a community forum, and walked away when they refused to let him.

 

The through-line is a man who wants power on his own terms. Who believes accountability is something that happens to other people.

 

Senator Bennet, you have built your campaign on the claim that you are the serious adult in the room, the coalition-builder, the candidate with moral clarity. You have said repeatedly that fighting Trump is not enough — that leadership requires vision and courage. We agree. So show some.

 

To every Colorado voter watching this primary, pay attention to how candidates treat communities when the cameras aren’t on and the questions get uncomfortable. Pay attention to who shows up and who sets conditions. Pay attention to who believes accountability is something that happens to other people.

 

As for the offer of a private meeting with Muslim leadership — we decline. We don’t need it.

 

Senator Bennet has already told us, through every escalating demand and his ultimate retreat, exactly what kind of leader he would be: one who shows up for communities when it’s convenient and disappears when it costs something.

 

Colorado’s primary is June 30th. We will remember.

 

 

Colorado Muslim Vote (CMV) coordinates civic and political engagement for Colorado’s Muslim community.