Jackie Judd, a lifelong journalist who reported for ABC News, NPR, and most recently the PBS NewsHour, will moderate the next installment of Hamilton College’s Common Ground series on Thursday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m., in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.
The public event features Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff for former President Barack Obama, and Reince Priebus, former chief of staff for President Donald Trump. Tickets are free and can be obtained at Hamilton.edu/commonground.
Common Ground at Hamilton brings together two individuals from opposing points of view to discuss current issues. The goal is for the speakers to model the kind of respectful dialogue across political boundaries that should occur not just on college campuses, but in the broader society as well.
Through her career, Judd has covered politics and social and health care policy as well as major international events—including the Tiananmen Square protests and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She has been recognized with many awards, including national Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award.
Judd also spent a decade at the Kaiser Family Foundation focusing on health policy communications and the international AIDS epidemic. Today, she is a communications consultant specializing in the non-profit sector. She is vice-chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation.
Hamilton President David Wippman said the program responds to the sharp and escalating political polarization in the United States and abroad. Common Ground was established at Hamilton to demonstrate the power and importance of civil discourse. The program features well-known public figures with divergent political and worldviews engaging in thoughtful, respectful dialogue about difficult issues.
Jim Messina
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff; President Barack Obama’s Campaign Manager (2012)
Jim Messina is arguably one of the world’s most successful political advisors. The mastermind behind President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Messina seized the reins on what Bloomberg Businessweek dubbed “the highest-wattage crash course in executive management ever undertaken”—and succeeded, earning the president another term in the White House. With the guidance of technology’s foremost leaders, Messina abandoned every step of a traditional presidential campaign and merged technology and politics in a way that was both unpredictable and unprecedented.
Messina’s strategies established the modern presidential campaign; Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt called it “the best-run campaign ever.” The American Association of Political Consultants crowned him the Campaign Strategist of the Year in 2013.
Since then Messina has advised presidents and prime ministers on five continents, including the U.K.’s Theresa May and David Cameron, Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto, Argentina’s Mauricio Macri, Italy’s Matteo Renzi, and in 2016 he helped Spain’s President Mariano Rajoy win a surprising re-election margin.
In 2013, Messina launched The Messina Group. In this role, he provides strategic consulting to businesses around the world. The firm has been involved in winning public policy campaigns on five continents. Clients include Uber, Airbnb, Google, Delta Air Lines, Hutchison Whampoa, and over 70 others.
Previously, Messina served as deputy chief of staff in President Barack Obama’s White House, where he was integral to the passage of the historic health care bill, the economic stimulus act credited with saving the U.S. economy, and the landmark repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
Messina continues to advise and guide Democratic candidates and organizations at all levels, and provides insight on news outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, BBC and others. He serves on the boards of Organizing for Action, Virgin Hyperloop One, Google’s Advanced Technology Panel, Vectra, Pillpack, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, LanzaTech, Hyp3r, the United States Soccer Foundation, and the Montana Land Reliance.
Reince Priebus
White House Chief of Staff (2017); Chairman of Republican National Committee (2011–17)
Reince Priebus was named Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff shortly after the 2016 campaign concluded. Prior to managing the White House staff, Priebus was the longest-serving chairman of the Republican National Committee in modern history. He oversaw a dramatic turnaround of the RNC, rescuing its finances, repairing its operations, and rebuilding its ground game. By welcoming new voters and harnessing the power of new technologies, Priebus built the infrastructure needed for landslide GOP victories. He left the RNC as one of the winningest chairmen of either political party in American history.
A successful chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Priebus created the framework for one of the most historic election cycles Wisconsin has ever experienced. During his tenure, Republicans in the state elected Ron Johnson to the Senate, gained two additional U.S. House seats, won the Governor’s mansion, and took back both the state Assembly and Senate, defeating the leaders of both those chambers.
Priebus has a long history in Republican politics as a grassroots volunteer. He worked his way up through the ranks of the Republican Party of Wisconsin as 1st congressional district chairman, state party treasurer, first vice chair, and eventually state party chairman. In 2009, Priebus served as general counsel to the RNC, volunteering his time to help manage the party’s most difficult challenges. Priebus will be a visiting Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School this spring. Currently, Priebus serves as president & chief strategist of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, and chairman of the Board of Advisors of Michael Best Strategies, the firm’s government relations and public affairs group.
The inaugural Common Ground program at Hamilton took place in October 2017 and featured political strategists David Axelrod and Karl Rove. USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page served as moderator. Former national security advisors Condoleezza Rice and Susan Rice were featured in a combined Common Ground/ Sacerdote Great Names discussion moderated by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell at Hamilton in April 2018. Hamilton alumni Mike Dubke, a former assistant in the Trump White House, and Marc Elias, general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, engaged in a Common Ground discussion in October, with Jackie Judd as moderator.
