Kopechne was devastated emotionally by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. After working briefly for the Kennedy proxy campaign of George McGovern, she stated she could not return to work on Capitol Hill, saying "I just feel Bobby's presence everywhere. I can't go back because it will never be the same again." In the fall election of 1968, Kopechne was the campaign strategist in Denver, Colorado for former Colorado Governor Stephen McNichols's run for the Senate against the incumbent Senator Peter H. Dominick. McNichols lost his run, and Kopechne went back to Washington, D.C. But as her father later said, "Politics was her life," and in December 1968 she used her experience to gain a job with Matt Reese Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm that helped establish campaign headquarters and field offices for politicians and was one of the first political consulting companies. By mid-1969 she had completed work for the mayoral campaign of Thomas J. Whelan in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was on her way to a successful professional career.