Former President Barack Obama is on the roster for a private event this weekend in Overland Park, and he’s not the only noteworthy politician on the list.
Obama is scheduled to participate in “a moderated conversation.” Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who once represented Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican, is also expected to be in attendance.
Both politicians are listed as speakers at Connect26, a regional all-day private client event for Overland Park-based wealth management firm Creative Planning. Past iterations of this event have drawn other former U.S. presidents.
According to an invitation for this year’s Kansas City-area event, Creative Planning is holding the event at the Overland Park Convention Center, not far from the firm’s headquarters off College Boulevard and Nall Avenue.
Further details about the event are unclear, though security is likely to be tight with former President Obama in attendance.
The Overland Park Police Department is “participating in the detail with the United States Secret Service,” said Officer John Lacy, a spokesperson for the department, in an email Wednesday.
At the time of publication, Creative Planning’s media team had not returned the Post’s request for comment.
Former presidents have been at past Creative Planning client events
Creative Planning holds multiple regional Connect events for clients throughout the year. Over the summer, one was held in Charlotte and had about 500 attendees, per a post on the firm’s Facebook.
But this isn’t the first time Creative Planning’s events have attracted big names.
The Connect25 event held in Kansas City last fall featured a conversation with former President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton, led by Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk. That event drew a crowd of about 5,000 people.
According to a Creative Planning social media post after the event, the two former presidents provided “presidential perspectives on unity.”
President Obama’s trip won’t double as campaign stop for Kansas Dems
While Obama is in town, it doesn’t seem he has any plans to appear at campaign events or otherwise campaign with the two biggest names seeking office as Democrats in Kansas.
Representatives of both Adam Hamilton and State Sen. Cindy Holscher confirmed in emails to the Post that Obama would not be appearing at any campaign events with either candidate.
Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat who has spent nearly a decade as a state legislator, is running for governor, hoping to succeed Gov. Laura Kelly, a fellow Democrat. She is facing off with Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican with President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Hamilton, a political newcomer and founding pastor of a Methodist megachurch in Leawood, is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. Glynnis Harvey, the campaign’s communications director, said Hamilton “will be campaigning in Wichita on Saturday.”
Both the U.S. Senate and Kansas Governor races have been closely watched as Holscher and Hamilton attempt difficult feats in their respective races.
For Holscher, she faces a tough pattern. It’s been more than 60 years since Kansas voters have sent two governors from the same party to Topeka back-to-back. Instead, the office has flip-flopped like clockwork between the Republicans and Democrats. With Democrat Gov. Kelly leaving office, Holscher will have to break the trend.
As for Hamilton’s race, for almost a century now, Kansas has sent only Republicans to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. The last time a Democrat won a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas was 1932, when Sen. George McGill held onto his seat.
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