Courting Republicans

The Harris Campaign Is Now Actively Courting Republicans

“Republicans for Harris” launched on Sunday with the goal of wooing Trump-skeptical voters on the right.

Julianne McShane

The Harris campaign, in its short existence, has already activated several key groups of voters—foremost women, who were among those who gathered by the tens of thousands on Zoom calls to help raise $200 million during the first official week of the campaign.

On Sunday, the campaign officially launched a play for another constituency: Republicans. (And, yes, there are plans for a Zoom.) The effort, dubbed “Republicans for Harris,” will be a “campaign within a campaign,” with the goal of attracting anti-Trump Republicans to the Democratic ticket, according to information provided by Harris’s team.

The initiative—first detailed by the Associated Press on Sunday—will combine both online and on-the-ground organizing efforts in battleground states with endorsements for Harris from high-level Republican officials. The campaign will kick off with a trio of events Monday in Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, and campaign officials will build out what they are calling state advisory committees in battleground states “to engage Trump-skeptical Republican voters,” including those who voted for former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. (Haley, though, has made it clear she’s sticking with Trump and wants her voters to do the same.) Republican surrogates will also appear with Harris and her yet-to-be-named running mate at various events in battleground states this week, the campaign said.

Some of those surrogates are already speaking out on Harris’s behalf. In statements provided by the Harris campaign, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and former Trump administration officials Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye blasted the ex-president and said they were lending their support to the Harris campaign’s bid to woo Republican voters.

“I was a proud Republican, but Donald Trump is unfit to lead our nation,” Whitman said. “We saw during his four years in office how he consistently chose himself, his pursuit of power, and his billionaire friends over the American people while spewing lies and spreading chaos at every turn. It’s time to move forward by electing Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Grisham, the White House press secretary under Trump, said in her statement: “Serving as his chief spokesperson and one of the longest-serving members of his team, I saw firsthand the lengths Trump was willing to go to stay in power as he did on January 6th, and the lies he so easily told Americans for the length of the administration. 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.”

The initiative launched on Sunday follows a digital ad from the Harris campaign, titled “Unfit,” that debuted last month. The 30-second spot features former Trump Cabinet officials and others speaking out forcefully against the ex-president.

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment from Mother Jones.

The “campaign within a campaign” launches after early polls show Harris closing the gap with Trump and dismantling the lead he held over Biden. A new CBS News poll released Sunday shows that Harris has gained a one-point lead over Trump nationally—which Biden did not manage to do before dropping his bid for re-election—and that Harris is tied with Trump across key battleground states.

Trump’s grip on the Republican party seems to have been loosening in recent months. In May—well before the insanity of the past month and its impacts on the campaign cycle—a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that one in ten Republicans were less likely to vote for Trump following his felony conviction in his hush-money case. And if “Republicans for Harris” takes off like the rest of the vice president’s campaign has, that number could rise between now and November.