According to Capitol Hill lore, the surest way to get a senator’s attention is to shout, “Mr. President!” And the best spot to shout it this year would be a meeting of the Senate Agriculture Committee, where three of its 20 members, Democrats Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar, are running for president.
Senate Agriculture has the highest ratio of presidential aspirants for any Senate committee, although the Judiciary Committee is close with three contenders, Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, among its 22 members. In percentage terms, 15 percent of Agriculture Committee members are running, compared to 14 percent of Judiciary members. Other committee have one or two candidates as members; a handful have none.
The Denver school superintendent for four years before joining the Senate in 2009, Bennet is the latest of seven senators to announce for the Democratic nomination for president. In laying out campaign themes, he focused on economic growth through “job-creating investments” such as infrastructure improvements and expansion of broadband to rural communities. “Michael will seize the economic opportunity of combating climate change — providing new opportunities for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities to become more resilient and to invest in zero-emissions energy while growing the economy,” says his campaign website.
A fourth member of the Agriculture Committee, Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio, was mentioned as a presidential contender but opted to run for re-election in 2020.