‘Republicans for Harris’ movement urges New Hampshire voters to ditch Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris has energized a small but growing group of Republicans who oppose former President Donald Trump, and the movement is taking shape in New Hampshire.
Jim Steiner’s home in Concord is ground-zero for the “Republicans for Harris” in the swing state. Steiner is a former Green Beret and a prominent Republican who has run for Congress. He supported former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary, but now co-chairs a group trying to persuade New Hampshire Republicans to help defeat Trump.
Steiner said he disagrees with Harris on “plenty of policies.” But, he added, “to me, democracy is on the ballot, and Kamala Harris is the only one who is going to protect the rule of law, democracy, our international relationships.”
Steiner called Trump an “embarrassment to the office of the presidency,” and said the former president’s refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 election and his disrespect towards veterans are reasons he can’t vote for the party leader.
Harris has fired up Democrats ever since she replaced President Biden atop the Democratic ticket. But Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party Congressman from Illinois who travels to key swing states urging Republicans to ditch Trump, said Harris also can win over moderates like Steiner who supported Nikki Haley in the primary.
For her part, Haley has gone the other direction, endorsing Trump at this summer’s Republican National Convention.
Steve Ager, the chair of New Hampshire’s Republican Party, called Walsh and Republicans for Harris out of touch with millions of Trump backers concerned about everything from the border to high grocery prices.
“Nobody knows or cares who Joe Walsh is. Nobody in New Hampshire cares about him,” said Ager. “They care about the grocery story, and Donald Trump is appealing to them. So, I would trade a handful of elitist Republicans for millions of working class Americans. I would do that trade any day of the week.”
But it could be more than just “a handful of elites” looking for a Trump alternative. Only 12% of Haley supporters in New Hampshire said their second choice was Trump in a Suffolk University poll last winter. A majority picked “someone else.” Veteran Republican pollster White Ayres said even after Haley suspended her campaign, she continued to win 20 to 25% of Republican primary voters in some states. Ayres said even small numbers could make a big difference in a close election.
For Steiner, among the reasons he’s voting against Trump is to reclaim and rebuild his party to be more moderate in the future.
“My fervent goal is that after the November election, the Trump mantra, the Trump cult, will disperse into the diaspora,” he said, and that “the Republican Party will reassess its values completely.”
Walsh, on the other hand, doesn’t buy that. He thinks Trumps’ values will remain the party’s values, even if the former president doesn’t win another term.
“I don’t see the party changing in my lifetime,” said Walsh, joining Steiner in Concord. “I think it’s on this Trumpism path that it can’t and won’t get off because that’s where the base is.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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