During a debate Tuesday, US. Sen. Michael Bennet and his Republican opponent, Joe O’Dea, promised to push for programs that would increase the behavioral health workforce and dispatch more therapists to 911 calls.
The forum at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus was the first time candidates vying to represent the state in the United States Senate took the debate stage to answer questions about mental health.
That is not to say that politics did not enter the discussion. Bennet interrupted O’Dea once to criticize him for opposing the American Rescue Plan, they sparred briefly on gun laws, and O’Dea, the owner of a Denver construction company, hammered Bennet on crime rates, inflation, and border control. Because it was their first debate, they were bound to try to get in some political jabs.
