Seventeen former workers members of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan are endorsing the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a joint assertion first obtained by CBS Information, the workers members wrote that Reagan, if alive, would have supported Harris.
“President Ronald Reagan famously spoke a few ‘Time for Selecting.’ Whereas he isn’t right here to expertise the present second, we who labored for him within the White Home, within the administration, in campaigns and on his private workers, know he would be a part of us in supporting the Harris-Walz ticket,” the group writes. “The time for selecting we face at present is a alternative between integrity and demagoguery, and the selection should be Harris-Walz,” the group added. “Our votes on this election are much less about supporting the Democratic Social gathering and extra about our resounding help for democracy.”
Over 230 former officers for Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have additionally backed Harris, along with marketing campaign staffers for Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. Biden obtained an identical quantity of GOP help in his 2020 run towards Trump.
Former Reagan workers backing Harris consists of Ken Adelman, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. arms management director underneath Reagan, in addition to B. Jay Cooper, the particular assistant and deputy press secretary to Reagan. Adelman had endorsed former President Barack Obama’s 2008 marketing campaign, in addition to President Biden’s 2020 run. He backed Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 marketing campaign, however was towards Trump’s 2016 run.
The listing additionally consists of Pete Souza, the chief White Home photographer for each Reagan and Obama.
The group says they want to persuade different former Reagan staffers to again the Harris-Walz ticket, calling it “the one path ahead towards an America that’s sturdy and viable for our kids and grandchildren for years to come back.”
CBS Information has reached out to the Trump marketing campaign for response. Trump has gotten help from solely a few Democratic officers who’ve since distanced themselves from the social gathering, equivalent to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who ran for president as an unbiased earlier than ending his bid and endorsing Trump final month, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic social gathering in 2022.
In April 2021, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, launched a speaker collection that featured a number of Republican presidential candidates who later ran towards Trump within the 2024 Republican main. The library didn’t invite Trump to talk and advised Politico it was as a result of he’s a former president and so they wished audio system who have not held that degree of workplace.
Their backing of Harris follows a swath of endorsements from Republican officers, together with a number of staffers throughout Trump’s first time period, in addition to former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“We’re not the one ones which are taking a stand right here. You’ve got heard it, many individuals who’ve labored for Donald Trump have stated that they don’t help Donald Trump coming again to the presidency. And I feel that speaks volumes, as a result of we all know him,” stated Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, previous to Tuesday’s debate between Harris and Trump in Philadelphia.
Troye, former Trump White Home press secretary Stephanie Grisham, former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan all had talking slots on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in August.
The brand new endorsements arrive because the Harris marketing campaign works to siphon help away from Trump in what stays a margin-of-error race within the battleground states, in accordance with CBS Information polling. Exterior teams and the marketing campaign have made a concerted effort to focus on battleground state voters who voted for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley within the Republican primaries earlier this yr.
CBS Information polling of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this month signifies that solely a small variety of undecided voters stays. Harris and Trump have close to complete help with their social gathering’s voters, although Harris has a slight edge over Trump with the sliver of average voters in these states who say there’s nonetheless time left to make a closing determination.
“The selection between reality and lies calls for help for Harris-Walz. The selection between freedom and suppression of freedoms means help for Harris-Walz. The selection between serving the individuals and serving the few leads us to help Harris-Walz,” the Reagan White Home staffers wrote within the letter.
