Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Public Sector Roundtable
Bridging the Divide: Listening to Trump’s America
Speaker: |
Supervisor Joe Simitian |
Date: |
January 12, 2018 |
Location:
|
Forbes Family Conference Room 126, Lucas Hall
|
12-1 PM
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Presentation (open to public) |
1:15-2:15 PM |
Public Sector Roundtable, Lunch and Conversation with Supervisor Simitian
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RSVP by January 8, 2018 to Hana Callaghan at hcallaghan@scu.edu
Joe Simitian, Santa Clara County Supervisor
Joe Simitian was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2012, and re-elected in 2016. After the 2016 election, Supervisor Simitian noted that the Bay Area and much of California was a bubble, where just 32 percent voted for Donald Trump and only 21 percent in Santa Clara County. Some were inclined to dismiss Trump voters as racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic or xenophobic. But is it fair to make this claim about the 46 percent of the American electorate that voted for Trump? Simitian didn’t believe so.
To get some answers, Supervisor Simitian traveled to three counties, in three states—Robeson County, North Carolina; Cambria County, Pennsylvania; and Macomb County, Michigan—where he had more than 100 conversations in places that had historically voted for Democratic candidates for President (including President Obama), but that “flipped” in 2016, and voted for President Trump. Supervisor Simitian spent a week in each place, talking with cops, teachers, librarians, labor leaders, business people, academics, bankers, journalists, retirees, elected officials and party activists from both parties, and a host of others. Come hear what he heard about America beyond the Bay Area.
Simitian’s career in public service includes stints as a member of the California State Senate, the California State Assembly, Mayor of Palo Alto, President of the Palo Alto School Board, as well as an earlier term on the Board of Supervisors. He has also served as an election observer/supervisor in El Salvador and Bosnia, and he has participated in refugee relief and resettlement efforts in Albania and Kosovo.