Dozens of well-known Republicans including a couple of former Trump White House staffers have switched allegiance to endorse Kamala Harris in the latest blow for Donald Trump.
The Harris presidential campaign on Sunday launched a “Republicans for Harris” drive, which it says already has the public endorsement of almost 30 Republican moderates who reject “the chaos, division and violence of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 Agenda.”
They include former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye, who advised Vice President Mike Pence on national security matters.
“I might not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know that she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage,” Grisham said in a statement.
“I encourage other Trump administration officials who saw the tyrant we worked for in office to speak out and stand with Kamala Harris this November to keep integrity in the White House and ensure democracy for our country.”
The Harris campaign launched the group as the vice president prepared to hold meetings at her official residence with potential running mates Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Two weeks after President Joe Biden finally gave up on his re-election campaign, Harris has ground through the gears to get her campaign up to speed and capitalize on the widespread relief that November’s election will not be a Trump vs. Biden repeat.
The GOP defectors include former Republican governors Jim Edgar (Illinois), Bill Weld (Massachusetts), and Christine Todd Whitman (New Jersey), and a number of former congressmen and senators.
Also named on the list published by the Harris campaign were Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood, who both served as Republican Cabinet members under Barack Obama—which might suggest that Obama himself is helping the Harris campaign reach out to anti-Trump Republicans.
According to the Harris campaign, the new group is a “campaign within a campaign” that will focus on getting Republicans to persuade friends and family members to vote for Harris over Trump. It will launch with events in key battleground states on Monday.
“Donald Trump’s MAGA extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values and will vote against him again in November,” Austin Weatherford, Harris’s national director of Republican outreach, said in a statement carried by The Hill.
He added, “Donald Trump said he doesn’t want these voters, but Vice President Harris and our campaign are working 0vertime to earn the support of my fellow Republicans who care about defending democracy and restoring decency—all of which would be torn away in a second Trump presidency.”
