Looking at the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election with two former members of Congress

Congresswoman Markey has over 35 years of leadership experience in the legislative, executive and state branches of government. She is also a successful business owner.

Betsy was elected a Democratic Member of Congress from Colorado, where she was on the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In 2011, President Obama appointed her as the Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where she worked closely with governors, mayors and tribal leaders on key homeland security issues. In the President’s second term, she was appointed the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, where she managed the agency’s small business programs in the Western United States. Earlier in her government career she held positions in the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Betsy was a co-founder of Syscom Services Inc., a technology company that specialized in web design and information management systems. She also owned, and later sold, Huckleberry’s, a coffee shop in Fort Collins, CO.

More recently, Betsy served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, where she managed Colorado’s economic incentive programs and overseas trade missions. She is currently a Global Strategic Advisor with Sumihiro investments, helping foreign-owned companies establish a presence in the United States. She sits on a number of Boards, including  the Board of Governors for Colorado State University, the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, and Eucast Global.

Betsy and her husband Jim Kelly have been married for over 40 years. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Former Congressman Scott Klug is the co-chair of the Government Solutions practice at the national law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP.

 After a 14-year career as an Emmy award winning reporter he upset a 32-year Democratic Congressman. Despite winning 4 elections by an average margin of 62% he stayed true to his term limit pledge and retired. He had the 3rd most independent voting record of any Wisconsin Member of Congress in the last 50 years. He is the creator of the popular podcast “Lost in the Middle: America’s Political Orphans.”

Mr. Klug was appointed by President Bush to two terms on the President’s Advisory Board on Trade and Policy Negotiations. He’s also led training programs on journalism and political campaigns for the U.S. State Department in Venezuela, the Czech Republic, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

He holds a B.A. in history from Lawrence University; a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern and a MBA from the University of Wisconsin.