The First 100 Days of a Michael Bennet Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: Colorado State Capitol (2023) — File:Colorado State Capitol (2023).jpg, via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario

Michael Bennet of Colorado has served in the U.S. Senate since 2009 and ran briefly for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. This article asks a hypothetical question: if he were ever sworn in as president, what would the first 100 days look like based on his documented record? This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person.

The premise is not idle. Bennet has already run for president once, and his Senate record since early 2025 is unusually dense with concrete, reintroduced legislation: a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit, tariff-transparency mandates, a ban on fast-tracked sales of public lands, and food-security restoration. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Bennet White House would open with an anti-poverty and executive-restraint agenda, most of which would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

02 The record: who Michael Bennet is

Bennet is a Democrat in his third full Senate term, appointed in 2009 and elected in 2010, 2016, and 2022. He sits on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee (Ranking member of the Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry, Natural Resources, and Biotechnology), the Finance Committee (Ranking member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight), the Rules and Administration Committee, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Before the Senate he was a lawyer by training, superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009, chief of staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and a managing director at the Anschutz Investment Company. His committee portfolio — tax, agriculture, intelligence — is the portfolio his 2025-2026 bills match, and it is the evidence base for everything below.

03 Taxes and the Child Tax Credit

The Child Tax Credit is Bennet's signature issue. On April 9, 2025 he reintroduced the American Family Act with Sens. Booker, Warnock, Cortez Masto, Durbin, Wyden and 39 other colleagues — 44 cosponsors in all. The bill would permanently raise the CTC to $6,360 for newborns, $4,320 for children ages 1-6, and $3,600 for ages 6-17 for middle-class and low-income families. Two days later he pushed a broader permanent CTC and Earned Income Tax Credit expansion package.

His office frames the stakes explicitly: “The expanded Child Tax Credit benefited 61 million American kids, helped cut childhood poverty nearly in half, and cut hunger by a quarter for families… Restoring the expanded Child Tax Credit is essential to ending childhood poverty in this country.” The office explicitly calls for a permanent, statute-level expansion — and this would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action. As Finance taxation subcommittee ranking member, a President Bennet would arrive with the bill already drafted and nearly half the Senate on record as cosponsors.

04 Trade and tariffs

Bennet opposed the Canada and Mexico tariffs from the start. On February 7, 2025 he led a statement on the postponed Canada/Mexico tariffs, and on March 5, 2025 he “sounded the alarm” on the 25% tariffs: “President Trump's decision to impose across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of our strongest international partners, is the wrong one. These tariffs will hurt Colorado workers and families, stymie international cooperation on transnational challenges like irregular migration and drug trafficking, and undermine our ability to compete with China.”

On March 12, 2025 he cosponsored the Tariff Transparency Act (with Sen. Alsobrooks and 15 others), requiring the U.S. International Trade Commission to report on tariff economic effects. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Bennet presidency would revoke across-the-board tariffs on day one — the one lever in his trade agenda that is genuinely unilateral, since a president who can impose them by executive action can revoke them the same way. The transparency mandate itself would require Congress.

05 Public lands

Bennet's newest signature bill is the Public Lands Integrity Act, introduced April 30, 2026 with Sens. Merkley, Wyden, and Heinrich. It would bar the sale of federal public lands via fast-tracked budget reconciliation. The bill follows the July 2025 fight over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, when the Senate nearly approved selling 1-3 million acres during reconciliation; Bennet built the bipartisan opposition that killed the provision.

His office puts it plainly: “Public lands make Colorado, Colorado… Congress must never use fast-tracked Senate procedure to sell Americans' public lands to fund short-term partisan spending. Not now, not ever.” The reconciliation-sale threat he guards against is legislative, so the statute needs Congress. But the executive branch controls the day-to-day disposal machinery: Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land-use planning is executive terrain, and a president hostile to land sales could slow-walk disposals without a single vote. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Bennet would pair the statute with administrative land-use directives in the first 100 days.

06 AI in government

Bennet is the author of the ASSESS AI Act (“Assuring Safe, Secure, and Ethical Systems for AI”), whose one-pager argues the U.S. government should “lead by example in the responsible use of artificial intelligence” — focusing on how federal agencies themselves use and procure AI. Evidence strength: moderate, because the one-pager dates to the 118th Congress (2024) and whether he reintroduced it in 2025-26 is unconfirmed; the related 119th Congress companion, the VET Artificial Intelligence Act (S. 2615, introduced July 31, 2025), has an unverified sponsorship linkage to Bennet.

What matters for the scenario is the lever: standards for federal agencies' own AI use are largely implementable by executive order and OMB guidance. This is the rare Bennet agenda item a president could execute unilaterally on day one — government “leading by example” is, by his own framing, an executive-branch function.

07 Food security and the farm bill

On November 21, 2025, Bennet led the entire Senate Democratic delegation from Colorado, with Sen. Hickenlooper, on a bill to reverse the SNAP cuts enacted in the reconciliation law and “restore food security for millions of Americans.” He had convened a Feeding Colorado roundtable on the dangers of the SNAP cuts on June 16, 2025. SNAP restoration would require appropriations and statute — Congress, not the presidency — though USDA rulemaking and administrative flexibility run through the executive branch and give a president real discretion over how harshly any cuts bite.

On agriculture more broadly, Bennet is a central player in the 2026 farm-bill fight as Conservation subcommittee ranking member. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported the bill in September 2026 on a 12-11 party-line vote, with Bennet pressing drought and crop-insurance priorities for Colorado producers facing record drought. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Bennet first 100 days would include a farm-bill push and administrative drought relief, not just a tax agenda.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out quickly outside his committee portfolio. There is not enough public evidence to determine Bennet's current position on immigration reform specifics, defense policy, or energy production — no documented 2025-26 position was found in the sources consulted for this analysis, and none should be inferred. The exact 119th Congress bill numbers for the American Family Act, Tariff Transparency Act, and Public Lands Integrity Act were not verified against congress.gov in the research pass; details come from his official releases. His AI legislation status is partially verified, as noted above.

Disclaimer: this article is a scenario analysis based on the documented public record as of September 21, 2026. It is not a prediction that Michael Bennet will become president, nor an endorsement or criticism of him or his positions. Where evidence is incomplete, that is stated rather than filled in.