Born in Iowa[1] in 1940, Bennett graduated from Grundy County High School, Tracy City, Tennessee, in 1957.

[2] He moved to Alabama shortly after to study at Jacksonville State University, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962.

During his time as a reporter, he found himself in Birmingham in 1963, where he witnessed the use of fire hoses, directed by Bull Connor, on civil rights protesters.

[4] In 1969, he was selected for a national award by the American Political Science Association for his reporting on public affairs, before completing his master's degree at the University of Alabama in 1980.

He became secretary of state of Alabama, having been appointed to fill a vacancy in 1993 and subsequently elected to two terms in his own right in 1994, as a Democrat, and 1998, as a Republican.