Election R&D Dialogues: Special Guest Mimi Walters
Let's Find Common Ground
USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future
5.0 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2020
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mimi Walters, former Congresswoman (R-CA) and Fall 2020 Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, joins co-directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy to share some thoughts on the 2020 election and her decades-long career in public office.
From investment executive to elected official, Walters most recently served as U.S. Representative for District 45 in Orange County, until 2018. She also served in both the California State Senate and Assembly and got her start in politics as a city Councilmember and Mayor of Laguna Niguel.
In Congress, Walters sponsored legislation for wildfire disaster tax relief and the Survivor’s Bill of Rights that established key protections for survivors of sexual assault. She served on the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee where she was a member of the Communications and Technology, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, and Oversight and Investigations subcommittees.
She is the co-founder of the California Women’s Leadership Association, sits on several boards, and will be teaching a course in the Fall titled “So You Want to Run For Office?” with the USC Center for the Political Future.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Election R&D from the University of Southern California's Center for the Political Future. |
| 0:11.2 | Our podcast brings together America's top politicians, journalists, academics, and strategists from across the political spectrum for discussions on hot-button issues where we respect each other |
| 0:22.0 | and respect the truth. We hope you enjoy these conversations. |
| 0:29.4 | I'm Bob Shrum, the Warshaw Professor of Politics at the University of Southern California, |
| 0:34.2 | and the director of the Center for the Political Future at USC Dornsife. |
| 0:38.4 | Welcome to the next installment of our election R&D dialogues, which I host with our |
| 0:43.8 | co-director at the center, the legendary Republican strategist Mike Murphy. |
| 0:48.2 | One of the most impactful endeavors at the center is our fellow's program, which brings |
| 0:54.1 | leaders from the real world of politics |
| 0:56.2 | to campus, to teach a course and interact with our students in a whole range of ways. |
| 1:01.6 | Our fellows have ranged from Simone Sanders, who's now at the Biden campaign, where she's |
| 1:06.5 | a consistent spokesman for the former vice president, to Adam Nagernie of the New York Times, |
| 1:11.6 | to Mike Madrid, a spectacular GOP consultant in California. |
| 1:15.9 | This semester, we have an outstanding cohort of fellows. |
| 1:19.6 | Former Senator Barbara Boxer, former California treasurer John Chung, |
| 1:23.7 | and former U.S. Representative Mimi Walters, who's our guest today. |
| 1:28.3 | Mike and I will ask questions for about 35, 40 minutes, and then we'll turn this over to |
| 1:33.0 | questions from you, which you should submit using the comment bar in the Zoom. |
| 1:38.4 | As you can tell, I'm not the world's greatest expert at Zoom, but we'll get through it. |
| 1:42.2 | To kick the discussion off, let me turn to my adversary |
| 1:45.8 | in politics, my colleague at the center, and my personal friend, Mike Murphy. Well, Bob, thank you |
| 1:51.2 | very much. One of my friends, or at least alleged friends just tweeted me, legendary, |
... |
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