featuring Campaign Experts
Matt Bennett & Lis Smith
Moderated by award-winning author, political analyst, & documentary filmmaker
Jonathan Alter
Thursday, November 5th, from 6-7:30pm Hosted by Richard Farley at HSF Kramer
Followed by Dinner at the Racquet Club
Dinner RSVP available to Executive Members and Above only
Every election gives us a window into what Americans are thinking. Who won will be obvious soon enough. Why they won is what matters.
What did each party get right, and where did they fall short? Did the divide between progressives and moderates within the Democratic Party prove decisive at the ballot box? How much did Trump's approval ratings shape the outcome? And most importantly: how did candidates actually connect with voters – and win?
There’s plenty to unpack.Campaign doyens Lis Smith and Matt Bennett join us in person to break it all down. Moderated by CNN’s S.E. Cupp, which means no one gets away with spin.
About our Speakers
Matt Bennett is a co-founder and Executive Vice President for Public Affairs at Third Way, the center-left think tank he helped establish in 2005. A veteran of Democratic politics and government, Bennett worked on both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns and later served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton White House. He also served on Vice President Al Gore’s staff and as Communications Director for Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Bennett is a frequent commentator on politics and public policy and has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Meet the Press, and 60 Minutes. He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Sandy Hook Promise.
Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, columnist and television producer.
Alter’s most recent books are American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial — and My Own (2024) and His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (2020), both of which received uniformly favorable reviews. His earlier books include three New York Times bestsellers: The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies (2013), The Promise: President Obama, Year One (2010) and The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (2006), also one of the Times’ “Notable Books” of the year. His next book is a political biography of Julius Caesar.
A former senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, Alter is a longtime political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He co-produced and co-directed the HBO documentary Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. In 2013-2014, he was an executive producer of Alpha House, a comedy on Amazon.
Over the years, Alter has written extensively for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Washington Monthly, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Vanity Fair, Daily Beast and other publications. In 2021, he launched a weekly Substack newsletter called Old Goats, Ruminating with Friends, which includes columns and his conversations with accomplished people of wisdom and experience.