In the midst of these unprecedented, extraordinary, and uncertain times, the 2020 US presidential election will be perhaps the most important in our lives. Led by Stanford’s own James Steyer and Pamela Karlan, and featuring President Bill Clinton, Stanford professors David Kennedy and Michael McFaul, Congressman Adam Schiff, political strategists David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt, Harlem Children’s Zone President Geoffrey Canada, commentator Ruth Marcus, and former presidential candidate and philanthropist Tom Steyer, this course will examine major topics at stake in the election and for the country.

Silicon Valley technologies are having an unprecedented influence on the democratic process in the 2020 election. Stanford political science professor Rob Reich and technology policy expert Marietje Schaake, along with David Kaye of the UN, Nathaniel Persily and Alex Stamos of Stanford, and Camille Francois of Harvard, among others, will discuss the array of digital technologies affecting this election, legitimately and illegitimately, and how they might be better managed or harnessed for the public good.