It must be terribly frustrating for ambitious, younger Democrats to be stymied by their two senators who refuse to step aside for a new generation of leadership.

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper is running for reelection and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is running for governor in 2026.

Hickenlooper was swept into the Senate in 2020 on an anti-Trump wave despite being, to be charitable, a lackluster candidate who was bogged down by ethical lapses. He complained that he was overworked and did not get enough sleep during the campaign.

Hickenlooper previously served two terms as mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2010 and then two terms as governor from 2011 to 2019 so he has been in public office for 22 years. He is 73 years old and would be 80 at the end of his second term if he is reelected.

He was first elected governor in 2010 after Colorado Republicans nominated a candidate with questionable credentials, prompting a conservative third-party candidate to enter the race. Even with that Republican collapse, Hickenlooper barely got 50 percent.

Bennet is truly the “accidental senator” appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2009 when U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar resigned to serve as secretary of the interior under President Barrack Obama.

Despite being a vulnerable appointed incumbent, Bennet was elected to a full Senate term in 2010 after his Republican opponent politically collapsed late in the campaign due to self-imposed mistakes. He was reelected in 2016 against a lackluster Republican challenger. Bennet rode the anti-Trump wave to a third term in 2022.

Bennet has been in the Senate for 16 years, and if he actually served out his current term, he would be the longest-serving senator in Colorado history, at 20 years.

Both Hickenlooper and Bennet ran forgettable campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. They are both graduates of the liberal Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

They have both toed the Democratic Party line in the Senate, earning them the deserved moniker of “Bennelooper” by Denver Gazette columnist Eric Sondermann, who says Colorado essentially has one senator with two votes.

Apparently Bennet is bored with being a senator so he wants to be elected governor and leave in the middle of his term. Is he motivated by a new agenda to stem Colorado’s decline?

The only discernable Bennet agenda for governor is to oppose the policies of President Donald Trump which he is already doing as a senator.

Bennet drove the incompetent, blindly partisan, and corrupt Secretary of State Jena Griswold out of the governor’s race.

This might have been a public service since the only thing worse than her being secretary of state would be for her to be governor although she is now running for attorney general which is equally frightening.

Attorney General Phil Weiser apparently did not get the memo that Bennet is entitled to be governor of Colorado. If Bennet wants it, he should have it. Weiser is running anyway.

Since Colorado is still dominated by anti-Trump sentiment, it is difficult to see how Hickenlooper will be seriously challenged so he will probably limp into a second term so he can celebrate his 80th birthday in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Colorado’s Democratic members of Congress will again be cooling their heels as Hickenlooper runs for reelection and Bennet runs for governor.

U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Aurora, Joe Neguse of Boulder, and Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood are stymied from running for higher office in 2026 by Bennet and Hickenlooper. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who has been in Congress for 26 years since 1998, seems content as the self-declared “dean” of the delegation who always floats her name when a statewide office is open.

DeGette continues to block the ambitions of a multitude of Democratic elected officials in deep blue Denver by refusing to step aside.

Bennet insists that if he is elected governor, he will appoint his successor rather than immediately resigning his senate seat so outgoing Gov. Jared Polis can appoint a new senator. Maybe that is why those four members dutifully lined up behind Bennet. You could almost see them elbowing each other to be the most visible at Bennet’s announcement.

Or maybe Polis and Bennet have cut a quiet deal that Bennet will appoint Polis to the seat thereby thwarting the ambitions of these representatives yet again.

How tidy that would be! Bennet, Hickenlooper and Polis can continue on their entitled careers in statewide office while younger, ambitious Democrats are kept on the sidelines.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens. He was campaign manager for U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota when Thune unseated Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.