As rumors swirl about a 2026 presidential run, Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego is already courting Wall Street and K Street. This week, he held a fundraiser on Nantucket with hosts including Rob Petty of global investment management firm Fiera Capital and D.C.-based corporate lobbyists Mike Smith and Amy Terjal. 

Once a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Gallego has shifted to the middle since running for Senate in Arizona last year and beginning his first term in the upper chamber. He recently helped deliver Republicans the Democratic votes they needed to pass a major cryptocurrency bill that boosts adoption of stablecoin technologies. Now, at his Nantucket fundraiser, he is collecting checks with help from a lobbyist for the industry.

Host Mike Smith, a principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs, represents venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, one of crypto’s most aggressive backers. The firm has called stablecoins the industry’s first “killer app” and recently invested in the stablecoin company Zar. Smith and Cornerstone are paid $80,000 a quarter by Andreessen Horowitz to lobby Congress on cryptocurrency and other issues, disclosures show. Smith and Cornerstone also lobby for stablecoin company Circle and financial services company Stripe, which is venturing into stablecoin payments.  

This is not Gallego’s first time raising money from crypto interests. In his 2024 Senate race, he benefited from $10 million in spending by the industry-funded Protect Progress super PAC. Earlier this year he headlined a fundraiser with Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, a billionaire Trump donor. All the while, Gallego has served as the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on “digital assets,” which oversees the very industry supplying his campaign cash.

Smith also lobbies for corporate giants like Alphabet, Boeing, Citigroup, and RTX. His spouse, Terjal, is a founding partner at Avenue Solutions, a D.C. lobbying firm that represents clients including private equity firm Apollo Global Management, JPMorgan Chase, and UnitedHealth Group. Terjal lobbies the U.S. Senate for Apollo Global Management on issues related to hospital management. The firm’s ownership of major hospital chains like Lifepoint Health and ScionHealth has been criticized for prioritizing profits over patient care, leading to service cuts, layoffs, and regulatory scrutiny. 

Ruben Gallego fundraiser in Nantucket on Monday, per invite. pic.twitter.com/Kfo5UCZZVB

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) August 15, 2025

Also helping to host Gallego this week was Rob Petty, co-founder of Clearwater Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based private credit firm that grew by buying up distressed corporate debt across Asia after the 2001 financial crisis and extracting high returns through restructurings. In 2018, Clearwater was sold to Canadian asset manager Fiera Capital, where Petty now runs its Asia division. The business specializes in “stressed credit and special situation investments,” deals that can keep troubled companies afloat but can also give outside financiers outsized power in bankruptcy proceedings and restructurings, sometimes at the expense of local businesses, workers, or governments left on the hook.

Liesel Pritzker Simmons and Ian Simmons, co-founders of the Blue Haven Initiative, were also hosts. The firm, which manages roughly $500 million across private equity, fixed income, private and direct investments, aims to align the Pritzker family’s wealth with social and environmental goals. Its venture capital arm funds early-stage companies in developing countries working in areas like solar energy, healthcare, and fintech. Ian Simmons has also been involved in efforts to address problems with money in politics. He was an early donor to the Lawrence Lessig-founded Mayday PAC and served as a board member for the nonprofit group Issue One.

Speculation about Gallego’s potential bid for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination has intensified following his recent visits to key swing states. Earlier this month, Gallego traveled to Iowa, where he participated in town halls and visited a meatpacking plant. In May, he visited Pennsylvania, where he engaged with voters in Bucks County, a district that narrowly flipped to Trump in 2024. At a town hall, he advocated for a more inclusive Democratic message that can speak to the working class, arguing that the party had become “too pure” and had alienated many potential supporters

While Gallego has consistently stated that his current focus is on helping Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections, he has not ruled out a future presidential run. In a recent interview, he acknowledged that the prospect of running for president had crossed his mind but added that such considerations were not among his immediate priorities. 

Speed Read:

Reuters: Cryptocurrency firm Tether has appointed former White House crypto policy executive Bo Hines as a strategic adviser to help steer its expansion in the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

Bloomberg: President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of bonds since he returned to office, including those sold by US companies affected by the sweeping changes to federal policies he’s championed.

New York Times: Some of Hollywood’s most prominent Democrats are set to hold a fund-raiser next month for one of America’s most endangered Republicans.