U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet made headlines in July after he became the first Democrat in the Senate to publicly call for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid.

Holding a microphone on the Mountain Tap patio in Steamboat Springs Monday evening, the senator explained his decision to a crowd at an event hosted by the local Democratic Party.

“I was the first person in the U.S. Senate to say that we needed to make a change at the top of the ticket this year,” the senator said. “And it was not because I don’t respect Joe Biden, and by the way, I respect him even more today than I did then. What he did was amazing.”

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The distinction drew applause from the crowd as Bennet praised Biden for the decision and for his track record as president. Bennet also expressed excitement for Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy.

But for Bennet, the November election is less about the candidates — it is about future generations.

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“The next generation of Americans are at fear of being the first generation of Americans to inherit less opportunity, not more, from their parents and grandparents,” said Bennet. “That is us, we are their parents and grandparents.”

“When I think about the stakes in this election, that is really what I am thinking about,” he said at Mountain Tap. “Because while Donald Trump is a huge problem, I am not thinking about him as the cause of our problem — I think of him as a symptom of our problem.”

Bennet’s remarks followed along the lines of a speech he delivered on the Senate floor in July that pointed to the style of “trickle down” or “supply-side” economics that became popular in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan and were supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

He noted the bottom half of Americans have less wealth than they did in the 1980s, and half of people in their 30s are earning less than their parents did.

After shaking hands and answering questions on the Mountain Tap patio, Bennet shared his thoughts on local and national issues including housing, inflation and how the U.S. should lead a global energy transition.

Before stopping in Steamboat, Bennet met with Moffat County Commissioners after stops in Rangely and Dinosaur in his annual tour of Northwest Colorado.

“In Colorado, really the top two things I am hearing these days: one is housing and the other is mental health, and I think those are actually related,” he said. “We have not figured out how to solve this housing challenge in our state, and we are going to have to figure it out.”

Reflecting on the Brown Ranch annexation referendum that Steamboat voters rejected in March, the senator said he didn’t consider it a sign that housing is not a problem in Routt County or across the state.

“I really don’t want to pass on Brown Ranch because I think there is obviously much more debate that is going to go on in the community here, but I do believe our quality of life is directly connected to the ability for workers to be able to live close to their jobs,” he said.

While there is a sense of “vibrancy” that he feels in the Northwest Colorado economy, Bennet said he also sensed a concern over what the future holds with the planned closure of the coal industry in Routt and Moffat counties by 2028, but other shifts could happen.

“You see one side says, ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ and you see sometimes people on the other side say, ‘Not another molecule of fossil fuels,'” said Bennet. “What the American people want to see is a thoughtful transition that has them in mind.”

Differences between Republicans and Democrats on issues involving public lands and climate “could not be greater,” Bennet said, adding that the U.S. should take a balanced approach with the energy transition.

“I think the damage Donald Trump could do is that he has no interest in making the transition; he will drag us back in the past,” Bennet added.

On inflation, Bennet brushed aside Republican claims that President Biden is to blame. He noted that inflation is a function of economic growth, and during the pandemic, low inflation stemmed from a recession.

“I do think that the Federal Reserve does bear some responsibility here because they kept rates at zero for so long … and their quantitative easing, that was massive, I think, was very beneficial to the wealthiest folks that benefit from the stock market,” he said.

“It wasn’t all that beneficial to someone trying to buy a house in Colorado, for example. Asset prices went up and up and up and up, even at a zero rate,” Bennet added.

Now, with economic recovery driving up demand and prices of goods, inflation has returned, along with higher interest rates, meaning the people that couldn’t buy houses with rates at zero can’t buy them because rates are at 4-7%, Bennet continued.

“That is a specific kind of inflation, but it really is mostly tied to the economic cycles that we are facing. There are probably some things that we could do to help fix our supply chains, bring things stuff back from Southeast Asia, bring some things back from China.”