Klobuchar and Smith Attended Key Democrat Meetings to Assess 2024 Presidential Election Loss
Attendance by the Minnesota U.S. Senators shows how their voices are influential in national politics.
Earlier this year, following Trump’s resounding defeat of Kamala Harris and his ascendance back to the White House, Democrats naturally held confabs to commiserate and explore what exactly happened to them and why their worst nightmare — Trump returning to power — came true.
It’s likely these sort of discussions took place at all levels, from kitchen tables to state party meetings and beyond.
Two stories from The New York Times indicate that our U.S. Senators from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, were separately part of two high-level, top-donor Democrat discussions held earlier this year.
On February 16, about a month after Trump’s inauguration, it was reported:
On Wednesday, aides to George Soros, one of the Democratic Party’s largest donors, helped gather a number of major contributors and players in Washington, including Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tina Smith of Minnesota. The group talked about the progressive media landscape and plotted future investments, according to three people with knowledge of the event, who insisted on anonymity because it was private.
And on May 9, The Times reported on a Future Forward conference held at a Ritz-Carlton just south of San Francisco:
Other speakers at the event included Mr. Newsom and Mr. Beshear, as well as Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, according to a copy of the agenda reviewed by The New York Times. They were interviewed by Future Forward operatives, such as the pollster David Shor and the former Biden adviser Anita Dunn, and by Kara Swisher, a former New York Times opinion columnist.
The attendance of Klobuchar and Smith at meetings like this shows their clout and influential voices.
Klobuchar was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, ascended to Democrat leadership positions in the chamber, held key roles in presidential inaugurations, and tested the presidential waters herself in 2020.
Smith was a key DFL operative before becoming Minnesota Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senator. Her attendance at the Soros meeting in February was just days after she announced she would not seek re-election.
What Smith’s political involvements in the future will be remain to be seen, though it would be hard for her to fully step back and not get tapped for her insights and connections. Klobuchar will likely continue to be valued and heavily involved in national politics. She’s very well-positioned coming off her fourth consecutive U.S. Senate election last year.
The two Times pieces have been a great part of ongoing political coverage by Theodore Schleifer and others.