WASHINGTON — Deputy Director Kamala Harris’ campaign on Sunday launches “Republicans for Harris” in an effort to win over Republican voters turned off by Donald Trumps candidacy.
The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” Harris’ team said, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular focus on primary voters who supported former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off this week with events in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.
Harris’ campaign team first shared details of the program with The Associated Press, ahead of the official announcement.
Biden’s team is trying to create a “permission structure” for GOP voters who might otherwise struggle to cast their ballots for Harris. The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter outreach, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice.
Trump’s “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, said Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford. He said the campaign “will show up every day and take the time to earn the votes of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who protects their freedoms and a commander in chief who puts the best interests of the American people above their own.”
Weatherford once served as chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket for President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Kinzinger is once again endorsing Harris as part of the launch.
“As a proud conservative, I never thought I would support a Democrat for president,” he said in a statement. “But I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.”
Kinzinger developed a national profile as one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021The committee highlighted a number of Trump’s transgressions before and during the deadly attack, as Congress sought to certify the results of the 2020 election, which Biden won over Trump.
Trump has done little to win over moderate Republican voters and criticized Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp again on Saturdaywho rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the crucial state.
Last month, when Biden was still at the top of the list, the campaign kicked off with a advertisement which highlighted former Trump aides’ criticism of their former boss. A separate ad highlighted Trump’s often personal attacks on Haley, including his primary nickname of her as “birdbrain” and the suggestion that “she’s not presidential timber.”
Hundreds of thousands of registered Republicans voted for Haley in the primaries, even after she ended her fight for the 2024 Republican nomination and Trump defeated her in nearly every contest.
Haley announced in May that she vote for Trump and appeared at the Republican National Convention last month.
Harris’ campaign includes former governors Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and 16 former Republican members of Congress, including Kinzinger and Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois and Susan Molinari of New York. All have been high-profile critics of Trump in the past.
Former Trump spokesperson Stephanie Grisham also supports Harris.
“I may not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know 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.