Updated August 15, 2024 at 10:17 AM ET
Prominent Republicans who are supporting Vice President Harris are urging fellow members of their party to back the Democratic ticket over former President Donald Trump.
During a Tuesday night meeting billed as an online rally for "Republicans for Harris," former elected officials and Republican Party leaders made a case for supporting Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Former Rep. Denver Riggleman, once a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was an adviser to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection. He described Trump as an "inveterate liar" and a "conspiracy theorist."
"When you see the data and you see the awful things I've seen — you see the command-and-control infrastructure of Jan. 6th — there's no way as a Republican that I could vote for anybody who's anti-Constitution," Riggleman said.
The Trump campaign is now responding to the call, calling Harris "dangerously liberal." In a statement to NPR, press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not specifically reference "Republicans for Harris," instead echoing standard campaign talking points.
"President Trump is building the largest, most diverse political movement in history because his winning message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds," Leavitt said in the statement.
"Kamala Harris is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal and a vote for her is a vote for higher taxes, inflation, open borders, and war," she added.
On Tuesday night, several participants in the Republicans for Harris call did acknowledge that they do not always agree with Harris on policy. But, they argued, they believe Trump would endanger American democracy.
"When the Harris team wins and prevents the sudden death of American democracy, we can joyfully return to arguing over marginal tax rates and the role of government in health care and all the other issues that defined our politics for generations," said Craig Snyder, who leads a group called Haley Voters for Harris.
Snyder's group recently received a cease-and-desist letter from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination. Noting Harris' record as a former prosecutor, Snyder said he's trying to make the case to former Haley supporters and other center-right voters that Harris and Walz will govern from the center-left.
Speakers also sought to cast themselves — rather than Trump supporters — as the true inheritors of the GOP tradition, invoking former Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and the Bushes.
Austin Weatherford, national Republican engagement director for the Harris campaign, noted that former President George W. Bush had described Trump as "weird" before Walz applied the term to the Republican nominee.
Rina Shah, a political strategist and former Republican National Convention delegate, framed a key voting issue for Democrats this year — abortion rights — in language designed to appeal to small-government conservatives. Shah referred to "draconian bans" supported by Republicans in multiple states since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
"When I see that happening, I think it's antithetical to the Republican Party I came up in," Shah said. "I don't want the government in my backyard, my bedroom, my bank account and certainly not in the medical exam room.”
Overcoming the fear of stigma and rejection from Republican loved ones also emerged as a key theme during the call.
Rosario Marin, who served as U.S. treasurer under President George W. Bush, described voting for Trump as "unacceptable" but acknowledged that voting for a Democrat may cause strained relationships for some people.
"It is not easy to vote outside your party," she said. "You may lose friends. Your neighbors may disagree with you. Family gatherings may turn uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, I can assure you that you will know in your heart that you did the right thing and that it's a worthwhile and noble cause."
Former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois acknowledged that it "takes a lot of courage" for many Republicans to publicly break with their party, but he argued it's necessary.
"You have to publicly out yourself: 'I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative, and I'm supporting Kamala Harris,'" Walsh said. "It takes courage, but remember: Donald Trump is unfit to be president."
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