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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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Republicans have lined up to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in a new grassroots program that was launched by her campaign on Sunday.
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21 following weeks of interparty fighting among Democrats on whether he should pass the torch to the next generation after his debate fiasco against former President Donald Trump in late June in Atlanta. Biden also endorsed Harris the day he withdrew from the race and she is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to challenge Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, in November.
On Sunday, the "Harris for President" campaign announced "Republicans for Harris," a program designed to "further outreach efforts to the millions of Republican voters who continued to reject the chaos, division, and violence of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda."
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Trump has rejected that he has anything to do with Project 2025, an initiative developed by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to make significant changes to the backbone of the country's federal government. It is designed to be implemented if Trump wins the upcoming election. Project 2025, meanwhile, previously told Newsweek that the initiative "does not speak for any candidate or campaign" and that it is ultimately up to Trump "to decide which recommendations to implement" if he's reelected.
Newsweek reached out to Harris' and Trump's campaigns via email for comment on Sunday morning.
In its Sunday announcement, the Harris campaign also included dozens of prominent current or former Republican figures, some of which now identify with a different party, who have already endorsed the vice president.
Former Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois was among the list, which he shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday morning.
"There is nothing 'conservative' about Donald Trump. Conservatives believe in the Constitution, not a 'man's' ego. Endorsing American democracy and the future today, and leaving the past in the dust. I'm endorsing @KamalaHarris," he wrote.
Kinzinger was one of two Republicans, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney being the other, to sit on the House select committee tasked with investigating the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and the events leading up to it. On that fateful day, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden's 2020 election win. The riot erupted following repeated claims from Trump that the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of this.
Other former GOP Congress members who endorsed Harris include:
- Rod Chandler of Washington
- Tom Coleman of Missouri
- Dave Emery of Maine
- Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland
- Jim Greenwood of Pennslyvania
- John LeBoutillier of New York
- Susan Molinari of New York
- Jack Quinn of New York
- Denver Riggleman of Virginia
- Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island
- Christopher Shays of Connecticut
- Peter Smith of Vermont
- Alan Steelman of Texas
- David Trott of Michigan
- Joe Walsh of Illinois
...
Former Trump White House officials Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye have also joined the GOP grassroots program.
Grisham served multiple roles in the Trump administration, mostly in communications, the most recent being chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump. She resigned in the hours after the January 6 riot.
"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 obtained by the Associated Press.
Troye served as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence and on the White House Coronavirus Task Force before resigning in August 2020 and endorsing Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg said in 2020 when he was Pence's national security adviser that Troye was fired, which she denied.
"As someone who served in the Trump White House, I witnessed the destruction & chaos firsthand. A second Trump term will bring more turmoil," Troye wrote on X on Sunday morning. "As a lifelong Republican, I may not agree with Kamala Harris on everything, but I trust her to protect our freedoms, uphold the rule of law & provide steady leadership on the world stage. That's why I'm voting for Kamala Harris. #RepublicansforHarris."
Former Republican governors Jim Edgar of Illinois, Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey also endorsed Harris as well as former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.
"I'm committed to beating Donald Trump. The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse Kamala Harris then count me in," Duncan wrote on X late last month.
Former Republican Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles also threw his support behind Harris.
"Since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to course correct. The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms," Giles wrote in an op-ed published by The Arizona Republic on Monday.
He added: "I believe my party has a moral and ethical responsibility to restore faith in our democratic institutions. In the spirit of the late Sen. John McCain's motto, 'Country First,' I call on other Arizona Republicans to join me in choosing country over party this election and to vote against Donald Trump."
Other prominent figures in the "Republicans for Harris" program include:
- Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
- Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood
- Former GOP state chair and state Senator Chris Vance of Washington
- Reed Howard of Young Republicans for Harris
- Former Republican National Committee (RNC) delegate Rina Shah.
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