After the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced this week its lineup for the first primary debate on June 26 and 27, some political commentators were surprised to discover the 20 individuals who qualified. Among the 20 are household names like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), but also relatively unknown candidates like Michael Bennet (D-CO). One major candidate, Steve Bullock, did not qualify. Bennet and Bullock especially are improbable underdogs in the Democratic primary race. Senator Bennet announced his presidential campaign on May 2 and qualified for the June debate just before the deadline. Montana governor Bullock announced his presidential run on May 14, but he failed to qualify for the June debate, instead writing a letter to the DNC explaining why he should be allowed onto the debate stage.
The 54-year-old Bennet was born in India and grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended Wesleyan University and Yale Law School. After a brief stint as counsel in the Clinton administration and as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, he was appointed by Colorado's governor to fill a vacated Senate seat. He ran and won reelection in 2010 and 2016. In the Senate, he serves on the powerful Finance, Intelligence, and Agriculture Committees. He portrays himself as a common sense policy wonk who gets legislation passed. The 53-year-old Bullock was born in Montana and attended Claremont McKenna College and Columbia Law School. After a brief period of private law practice, in 2008 he ran to become Montana's attorney general and served until 2012. He won the race for governor in 2012 and won reelection in 2016. He markets himself as a proud progressive who also appeals to conservative and rural voters.
Bennet is campaigning on a simple platform with three pillars: drive economic opportunity, restore American values, and fix our broken politics. On the economy, he wants to invest in green jobs that help fight climate change, create a Medicare public option, and guarantee all children a high-quality education. On values, he wants to repeal Trump's cruel immigration policies, respect the free press, and rebuild relations with US allies. On politics, Bennet wants to overturn Citizens United and protect voting rights. Bullock is anchoring his campaign on one big idea: fighting toxic money in politics. His plan is to crack down on dark money political expenditures, enforce existing campaign finance laws, ban super political action committees, force disclosure of all political expenditures, and overturn Citizens United. Bullock believes the US can reform education, healthcare, taxes, labor security, and more, only after defeating the toxic influence of money in the political system.
Both Bennet and Bullock are improbable underdogs because they have little to no name recognition outside of their states. This year Bennet briefly grabbed political headlines with a blistering speech criticizing Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for hypocrisy. Bullock is struggling to break into the national spotlight, and his failure to qualify for the first debate greatly hurts his chances. But Bennet hopes his message of being a pragmatic liberal leader who gets results can gain votes. And Bullock hopes his record of governance in a deep red Trump-voting state will attract attention.