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A Trump supporter and a Clinton delegate walk into an auto shop

caption: Democrat Germaine Kornegay and Republican Bill Orsborn try to bridge the partisan divide at Gateway Car Clinic and Transmissions in Mount Vernon, Washington
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Democrat Germaine Kornegay and Republican Bill Orsborn try to bridge the partisan divide at Gateway Car Clinic and Transmissions in Mount Vernon, Washington
KUOW Photo/David Hyde

Germaine Kornegay is the first and only African-American to be elected to the Sedro-Woolley City Council. She was a Hillary Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Despite this, she’s friends with many Republicans.

Like Bill Orsborn. He owns Gateway Car Clinic and Transmissions in Mount Vernon, Washington. Orsborn was an alternate delegate for Donald Trump at the National Republican Convention.

These sorts of bipartisan friendships are less common in 2017. According to the Pew Research Center, Democrats often see Republicans as less intelligent, more closed-minded and more dishonest than other Americans. And the fewer Republican friends they’ve got, the colder they feel toward people in the other party. Republicans feel the same way.

But is it still possible to be friends, and have meaningful conversations, across the political divide? Recently Kornegay and Orsborn met in his Mount Vernon shop to talk about politics, friendship and what the other side just doesn't get.

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