Pete Buttigieg could not believe what he had just watched. The former transportation secretary stood at the corner of the hotel bar in Denver, where CNN had just finished broadcasting the Trump administration's news conference about the ground stop that halted flights nationwide on Friday. Mr. Buttigieg was among the thousands of Democrats who had gathered in Denver this week for a conference designed to chart the party's future and celebrate their midterm wins.

The ground stop stranded some of the party's top rising stars and their staffs, leaving people accustomed to inside information with very little. Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan munched on Parmesan fries and checked their phones as they waited for news of their flights, while Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia scanned his Senate group chats for updates from secure channels and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Mr. Buttigieg struggled to comprehend the performance of his successor, Secretary Sean Duffy, on the television above.S1

The stranded politicians bemoaned the lack of information from the federal government and their inability to get home. One New England-based operative booked a rental car and planned to drive back to Boston, while others looked up how long a train trip to the East Coast would take on Amtrak, the answer being more than 40 hours. Aides to one prominent Democratic governor, who had flown to Denver on a private jet, fielded questions from others in the bar about whether they could hitch a ride home.S1

A few people working for Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who did not come to Denver, commandeered a long table where his chief of staff, Anne Caprara, worked two phones as she juggled rumors, emergencies back home and calls from the boss. She said Mr. Pritzker was furious about the lack of information coming from the Trump administration. Ms. Caprara described the scene as the Mos Eisley Cantina of politics, a reference to the famous bar in "Star Wars."S1