MALVERN, PA – The most high-profile GOP politician who is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump in the presidential election says that there are plenty of fellow Republicans who will quietly support the Democratic nominee.
"They’re going to vote the right way on Nov. 5. They might not be public about it, but they’ll do what they know is right," former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said on Monday, as she teamed up with Harris at a campaign event in suburban Philadelphia in battleground Pennsylvania.
While Trump retains vast sway over the GOP, even a small sliver of Republicans supporting Harris could make a consequential impact in what will likely be a race within the margins in the key swing states.
As she turns up the volume on her efforts to court disgruntled Republicans in the closing stretch of the presidential campaign, Harris on Monday was teaming up with the most visible anti-Trump Republican, not only in Pennsylvania, but also in two other crucial swing states – Michigan and Wisconsin.
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Cheney, a one-time rising conservative star in the GOP who, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, has vowed to do everything she can to prevent the former president from returning to power.
"We have the opportunity to tell the whole world who we are, and we have the chance to say, you know, we're going to reject cruelty. We're going to reject the kind of vile vitriol that we've seen from Donald Trump. We're going to reject, the misogyny that we've seen from Donald Trump and JD Vance," Cheney argued.
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And she emphasized that "we have the chance in this race to elect somebody who… is going to defend the rule of law. You know, Vice President Harris is going to defend our Constitution."
Cheney said her endorsement of the vice president was "not at all a difficult choice" and she reached her decision in part as a mother. Harris is hoping Cheney’s support will help her win support from Republican women who may hesitate on backing their party's presidential nominee.
Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, once rose within the ranks of House Republican leadership.
But she was the most high-profile of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump in early 2021 on a charge of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, which was waged by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who aimed to disrupt congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election.
The conservative lawmaker and defense hawk immediately came under verbal attack from Trump and his allies and was eventually ousted from her No. 3 House GOP leadership position.
Cheney, who has been vocal in emphasizing the importance of defending the nation's democratic process and of putting country before party, was one of only two Republicans who served on a special select committee organized by House Democrats that investigated the riot at the Capitol.
In 2022, she lost the GOP congressional primary in Wyoming to Harriet Hageman, a candidate backed by Trump.
At a speaking event in early September at Duke University in swing state North Carolina, Cheney announced that she would vote for Harris in the presidential election. Cheney's father also endorsed Harris.
And Cheney formally backed Harris as they teamed up on the campaign for the first time earlier this month, at an event in Ripon, Wisconsin.
Cheney was not always a fan of Harris.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly pointed to a social media post by Cheney during the 2000 election in which she said, "@KamalaHarris has a more liberal voting record than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Her radical leftist views-raising taxes, banning gun sales, taxpayer $ for abortion & illegal immigrant health care, eliminating private health insurance-would be devastating for America."
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Trump, speaking with Fox News' Bill Melugin during a rally in Michigan earlier this month, charged that Cheney was "terrible" and "a stupid war hawk. All she wants to do is shoot missiles at people."
On Cheney's backing of Harris, Trump argued, "I think they hurt each other. I think they're so bad, both of them."
And ahead of Monday's event, Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley argued in a statement that "Liz Cheney is just as unpopular as Kamala Harris is to Pennsylvania voters – bringing her to the Keystone State to try to catch up to President Trump's lead is not a winning strategy."
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Cheney and her father are part of a growing list of prominent Republicans who are supporting Harris.
Two other high-profile anti-Trump Republicans, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, had speaking roles at the Democratic National Convention, which was held six weeks ago in Chicago.
And Kinzinger and Duncan joined other prominent Republicans who are backing the vice president at an event with Harris last week in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, at the historic park where George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 – a turning point moment in the American Revolutionary War.
The lifelong Pennsylvania Republicans who introduced Harris at last week's event – Bob and Kristina Lange – were part of a group sitting on stage behind Harris and Cheney at Monday's event.
The Langes, who own a family farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, have also starred in a Harris campaign commercial. The Langes say they've seen a barrage of hateful and derogatory messages following their appearance in the Harris ad.
But in an interview last week, they noted that their Republican friends say "that they're on the same page that we are. They're approaching us and telling us ‘We’re behind you.' They're thanking us for what we're doing. They're thanking us for being brave because many people are afraid to speak out against Trump because of revenge and other things like that."
Harris, as she and Cheney took moderated questions from the audience at a theater in the outer suburbs of Philadelphia, reiterated that her administration "will not be a continuation of the Biden administration. I bring to it my own ideas, my own experiences."
And while the town hall style event was aimed at speaking to suburban women, the vice president also made an appeal to younger voters, after answering a question from a college student.
"I love Gen Z," she highlighted.
