Washington, D.C. On Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign started a new website called “Republicans for Harris.” She wants to win over Republican voters who are turned off by Donald Trump’s campaign.
According to Harris’ team, the program will be a “campaign within a campaign.” Well-known Republicans will use their networks to get people to vote, with a focus on primary voters who backed Nikki Haley for U.N. ambassador. This week, events will be held in Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to start the program. The campaign said that Republicans who support Harris will also be at rallies this week with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate.
Before it was made public, the Harris campaign told The Associated Press about the details of the program.
Her team is working to make “a permission structure” for GOP voters who might not be able to vote for Harris otherwise. Republicans will talk to other Republicans about voting for Harris because it is thought that hearing directly from another Republican who is making the same choice is the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris.
Austin Weatherford, Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, said that Trump’s “extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values.” These voters will vote against him again in November. “We will be there every day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own,” he said.
Weatherford used to be the chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Kinzinger backed the Biden-Harris ticket before President Joe Biden blew the debate against Trump. Kinzinger is once again behind Harris as part of the launch.
He told the press, “As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President.” “But I’m sure Vice President Harris will protect our democracy and make sure Trump never gets back into the White House.”
Kinzinger became known across the country as one of only two Republicans on the House committee that looked into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. As Congress tried to confirm that Biden won the 2020 election over Trump, the committee brought up a number of Trump’s wrongdoings before and during the attack that killed people.
There hasn’t been much Trump has done to try to win over moderate Republican voters. On Saturday, he criticised Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp again for turning down Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the key state.
A campaign ad ran last month, when Biden was still at the top of the ticket, that showed former Trump staffers criticising their former boss. It was emphasised in a separate ad that Trump often attacks Haley personally, calling her names like “birdbrain” and saying that “she’s not presidential timber.”
A lot of registered Republicans voted for Haley in the primaries, even though she had given up on her bid for the Republican nomination in 2024 and Trump was beating her in almost every race.
In May, Haley said she would vote for Trump, and she went to the Republican National Convention last month.
The Harris campaign has 16 former Republican members of Congress, such as Kinzinger, Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois, and Susan Molinari of New York, as well as former Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and former Govs. Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey. All of them have spoken out against Trump in the past.
Stephanie Grisham, who used to be Trump’s press secretary, also supports Harris.
Grisham said in a statement, “I may not always agree with Vice President Kamala Harris, but I know she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy, and represent America with honour and dignity on the world stage.”
