Support for Kamala Harris coming from some unexpected places
As the Trump train starts to derail under threat of a blue wave forming on the horizon, some prominent GOP lawmakers are making it clear that they support Vice President Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States. Such endorsements come at a critical time and open the door to a potentially sizable number of Republican voters feeling comfortable voting for the Democratic ticket this November.
First, John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona (which he describes as among the nation’s most conservative cities) penned an op-ed in The Arizona Republic on Monday embracing Harris while slamming Trump. Channeling the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s “Country First” motto, Giles insisted we need leadership that places national interests over partisan loyalty.
Writing that it’s “essential that we proceed in a manner that strengthens, rather than diminishes, public confidence in our democratic institutions,” Giles called Harris “the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves,” warning that “too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.” Giles also spent time contrasting the Biden-Harris administration, which brought “historic federal funding” to Arizona with Trump, whose Infrastructure Week “was made into a joke.”
The Giles endorsement follows one by former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who has been a strong critic of Trump and had already endorsed President Joe Biden for reelection. Duncan recently posted on X that the “only vehicle left” for him to help beat Trump with “is the Democratic Party.” If it means he can “vote for, speak for, or endorse Kamala Harris, then count me in!”
In his farewell address, President George Washington astutely warned that political parties could become “potent engines” where “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” Republicans like Giles and Duncan aren’t afraid to admit that this is exactly what’s going on with their party today. They’re sounding the alarm so that like-minded Republican voters may feel empowered to vote their conscience on November 5.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month