US Vice President Kamala Harris launches 'Republicans for Harris' bid against Donald Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump’s candidacy.

The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Ms Harris’ team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Republicans backing Ms Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.

Ms Harris will interview three top candidates - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro - at her Washington, DC, residence on Sunday ahead of a final decision on her running mate.

Ms Harris is expected to announce her choice as early as Monday, before her first public appearance with the vice presidential nominee on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Reuters was first to report.

The campaign is trying to create “a permission structure” for Republican voters who would otherwise have a difficult time voting for Ms Harris.

The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter contact, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Ms Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice.

Donald Trump’s “extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Mr Trump represents their values” and will vote against him again in November, said Ms Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford.

He said the campaign would be “showing up and taking the time every single day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own”.

Weatherford is a one-time chief of staff to former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger, who had endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Mr Trump.

Mr Kinzinger is backing Harris once more as part of the launch.

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing 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.”

Mr Kinzinger developed a national profile as one of two Republicans on the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The committee highlighted a number of Mr Trump’s transgressions before and during the deadly attack as Congress tried to certify the results of the 2020 election that Mr Biden won over Mr Trump.

Mr Trump has done little to try to win over moderate Republican voters and on Saturday criticised Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who rebuffed Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the battleground state.

Last month, when Mr Biden was still at the top of the ticket, the campaign went out with an ad highlighting former Mr Trump staffers’ criticism of their one-time boss.

A separate ad highlighted Mr Trump’s often-personal attacks against Ms Haley, including his primary nickname of her as “birdbrain” and suggestion that “she’s not presidential timber.”

Hundreds of thousands of registered Republicans voted in primaries for Ms Haley even after she ended her bid for the 2024 Republican nomination and as Mr Trump trounced her in almost every contest.

Ms Haley in May announced she would vote for Mr Trump and appeared at last month’s Republican National Convention.

with Reuters