Stories from the Front Lines of Democracy: Keynote with Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates

Following the 2020 election, a wave of conspiracy theories regarding voter fraud and allegations of a "stolen" election swept across the United States. Nowhere was this more palpable than in Maricopa County, Arizona, which swiftly emerged as a focal point for accusations of electoral irregularities and mislaid ballots. A central figure in this tumultuous period was Bill Gates, who, as the Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors at the time, found himself at the center of the storm.

Gates, a lifelong Republican, voted to certify Joe Biden's electoral victory in the county. In doing so, he unwittingly made himself a lightning rod for online harassment, intense public scrutiny in national news outlets, and even a vote in the Arizona state Senate to hold him in contempt. Facing death threats targeting him and his family, he had to temporarily flee his home, and struggled with PTSD in the years since.

Read more about Supervisor Gates: "Arizona official targeted by election deniers now struggles with PTSD" (The Washington Post), "A Troubling Sign for 2024" (The Atlantic), "How Maricopa County defeated election disinformation — for now" (NPR), "Key Arizona election official to step down amid harassment and conspiracy theories" (Politico), "Counting Through Conspiracy Theories in Arizona’s Midterms" (The New Yorker).

Join us for this inspiring event where Supervisor Gates will discuss his experience helping lead Arizona's most populous country through a period of tremendous democratic turmoil. Food will be available before and after the event as part of the larger Stanford Democracy Day 2023 programming. This in-person event will take place on Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, at 1:30 PM.

Location: Old Union Courtyard, 520 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.

The event will take place as a conversation between Supervisor Gates and Stanford FSI Fellow Didi Kuo, with an open Q&A afterwards.

Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. She is a scholar of comparative politics with a focus on democratization, corruption and clientelism, political parties and institutions, and political reform. She is the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: the rise of programmatic politics in the United States and Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2018).