The Empty Chair: Senator Bennet Pulls Out of CO Muslim Forum

Muslim Votes forum, April 6th, 2026

Earlier this month, Colorado Muslim Vote, an organization dedicated to mobilizing and empowering the Muslim community across Colorado, organized a gubernatorial forum with Senator Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser. However, Bennet’s team soon made a series of demands, including refusing to allow any questions about his record on Gaza. They also asked for a list of questions in advance, raised concerns over security, and indicated that the forum seemed unsafe and not worth attending. After CMV refused to censor the forum, Bennet withdrew, offering a private meeting with Muslim leadership instead, which the group declined. 

In a statement, Bennet’s spokeswoman, Jordan Fuja, said that Bennet remains deeply committed to having meaningful conversations with the Muslim community. “As we received details about the forum, it became clear that this event would not lend itself to a genuine dialogue where Michael can listen to the community and provide the clarity the people deserve.”

Senator Michael Bennet pictured. Photo Courtesy of United States Congress

Bennet, like Phil Weiser, is the son of Holocaust survivors, and has issued statements regarding the “unacceptable humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. However, Bennet has not supported prior congressional resolutions limiting arms sales to Israel. 

In 2024 alone, the US government sent at least $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel; since then, politicians across the nation have tried to navigate the growing criticisms from their own voters about American support for Israel. As the death toll in the Palestinian territories has mounted, public polling has shown a sharp decline in support for Israel among US voters. According to Pew Research Center data reported by the Union-Bulletin, national favorability has eroded from 55% in February 2022 to just 37% today. 

The decline is sharper among democrats across the country, including in Colorado. The Colorado Democratic Party adopted a new policy platform at its assembly that recognized Israel’s genocide; it also called for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a US based lobbying group that spends heavily to support pro-Israel candidates, to register as a foreign agent under federal law. 

AIPAC has spent millions of dollars supporting pro-Israel candidates across the country and trying to prevent politicians critical of Israel from getting elected. The group’s focus “is to ensure that America provides Israel the resources it needs as quickly as possible so it can permanently dismantle Hamas” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told Bloomberg. In pursuit of these goals, AIPAC has funded candidates on both sides of the aisle: including more than 100 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election. 

Senator Bennet is among the many candidates who have accepted millions from AIPAC. According to Track AIPAC, these contributions to Bennet’s campaigns total approximately $3,176,314. Due to this context, people viewed his absence from the forum as a symptom of the deepening rift between the Democratic establishment and Arab and Muslim voters over the party’s refusal to confront Israel’s actions. 

As The Denver Post observed, Bennet’s absence sent a clear message: he “was more afraid of the optics of fumbling tough questions about Israel’s war tactics […] than the optics of agreeing to attend an event and then not showing up for the community.”

Azra Taslimi, a Civil Rights and Employment Discrimination attorney who moderated the forum, emphasized the necessity of direct engagement. “The forum was a space for our community to have the ability to confront and ask questions of these candidates,” Taslimi told Yellow Scene Magazine, adding that the goal was for candidates to realize “this is a community that showed up.”

Pictured Azra Taslimi moderates conversation with Julie Gonzales and Melat Kiros at the Colorado Muslim Vote Governor’s Forum April 5, 2026.

For Taslimi, trust is a currency earned through consistency and that public officials falter when they engage only on their own timelines.

“It becomes a problem when officials only choose to engage […] when it’s convenient for them,” she noted.

Drawing on her legal background, Taslimi views these community spaces as essential safeguards for democracy. While she acknowledges that politicians may lack perfect answers, she maintains that sincere engagement is the baseline for credible leadership, especially as recent political shifts, including the second Trump presidency, highlight the urgent need for stronger democratic accountability.

Colorado Muslim Vote released a press release regarding Michael Bennet. “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 a 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.” 

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