After several weeks of internal divisions over Joe Biden’s candidacy, the party of the donkey finally seems to have found its unity. The leaders of the Democratic Party converged on Monday, August 19 in the third largest city in the country, Chicago, to celebrate the inauguration of Kamala Harris. Former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, congresswomen Alexandra Ocasio Cortes and Maxine Waters, and Chicago’s chief magistrate Brandon Johnson have convincingly defended the vice president’s candidacy on the stage of the Democratic convention. And according to information from New York Times, The big democratic gathering could even welcome several members of the Grand Old Party (GOP).
On Monday night, in a video released on the occasion of the first night of the big Democratic party, businessman Rich Logis, a former Trump supporter, urged Republican supporters to support Kamala Harris’ candidacy. “You don’t have to agree with everything you hear tonight to do what’s right,” he argued.
“At least” two others are expected to speak this week, the American daily specifies. All are fervent anti-Trump and have still not digested the billionaire’s third candidacy for the presidential election. The name of former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger is notably mentioned to speak this week. As is that of Ana Navarro, a Republican, co-host of the show “The View” on ABC and critic of Donald Trump for several years.
Blocking Donald Trump
Because behind the endorsement of these former Trumpists, it is above all a question of avoiding the election of the champion of Maga (Make America Great Again, Donald Trump’s slogan in 2016) next November. “When you see the data and the horrible things I saw – the command and control center of January 6 [NDLR : 2021, date de l’assaut des partisans de Trump sur le Capitole]in particular – it is impossible for me, as a Republican, to vote for someone who is anti-Constitution,” hammered home former representative Denver Riggleman during an online meeting in early August, billed as a “Republicans for Harris” rally. A slogan that materialized in a platform launched by the Democratic Party about ten days after Joe Biden withdrew from the race for the White House.
The goal? To win back “the millions” of orphaned Republican voters, “who reject the chaos, division and violence of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 program,” the vice president’s campaign website claims. Funds are allocated to them to organize field trips and media campaigns to “reach, persuade and mobilize” the greatest number of Republican voters. The organizers said that more than 70,000 people participated in the live call. And less than three weeks after its creation, the group “Republicans for Harris” counts among its ranks nearly forty executives from the party with the elephant.
Among them are two former officials of Donald Trump’s White House, Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye, former secretaries Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood, as well as former governors Jim Edgar, Bill Weld and Christine Todd Whitman. Not to mention about twenty former members of Congress. Former Conservative Party chairman Chris Vance is also on the list, as is former Republican Convention delegate Rina Walsh. All are seeking to embody the “true legacy” of the Republican Party. That of “Ronald Reagan” or the “Bushes” in the face of a Donald Trump who is a “conspiracy theorist” and “inveterate liar”, according to Denver Riggleman.
Nikki Haley’s Voters Are a Hotbed for Democrats
A mark of “courage”, greets Republican Joe Walsh who judges Donald Trump “totally unfit to be president”. And although he did not adhere to the “Republicans for Harris” program, the old one congressman of Illinois insists: “I’m a Republican, I’m a conservative, and I support Kamala Harris.” And he’s not alone. Like him, other members of the conservative party are calling for a vote for Kamala Harris while keeping their distance from the center-left party. This is notably the case of Craig Snyder, chief of staff to Republican Senator Arlen Specter who leads the group “Haley Voters for Biden”, renamed “Haley Voters for Harris” this summer.
The goal is to encourage the four million voters of Donald Trump’s main rival in the Republican primaries to rally behind the vice-president’s campaign. “We can make a difference, especially in key states,” he repeats at every turn. And Craig Snyder adds, as if to reassure the anti-Trumpist Republican electorate: “When Team Harris wins and prevents the sudden death of American democracy, we can happily return to our debates on marginal tax rates, the role of government in health care and all the other issues that have defined our politics for generations.”
Problem: the initiative has sparked the ire of the person whose name is used: Nikki Haley. And for good reason, after having clashed for several months with Donald Trump, the governor of South Carolina recently gave him her support at the Republican convention in Milwaukee in mid-July, suggesting that their relations had warmed up. Thus, she reportedly sent the collective a letter of cease and desistor a formal legal document ordering the immediate cessation of an activity deemed harmful or illegal.
Supports by communicating vessels
While some may find it surprising that conservatives would endorse a Democratic candidate, cross-endorsements between the two parties are nothing new. At the 2020 Democratic convention, former Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican, called for a vote for Joe Biden in a recorded speech. Conversely, former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said last spring that she would be “honored” to be chosen for vice president alongside Donald Trump, whom she has endorsed.
Kamala Harris’ campaign team even has a “national director of Republican engagement,” poached from the Republican Party by Joe Biden’s former team. A certain Austin Weatherford, now tasked with developing a strategy to open the ranks of the Democratic electorate to moderate Republicans or, like him, those allergic to Donald Trump. Because in a vote as close as the one on November 5, every vote counts. And in a country where two-party politics still reigns supreme, a vote won is a vote lost for the opposing camp.