Michael Brodkorb, former deputy chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, finds himself part of an unlikely yet growing wave that could affect the outcome of the November election: lifelong Republicans who have broken with Donald Trump to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
The movement is without precedent in American presidential politics. Its ranks now include hundreds of staffers of former Republican presidents and nominees, retired senior military officers, White House lawyers going back to Ronald Reagan’s administration and many others.
I’ve known Brodkorb for years. He was a hardcore party guy who delighted in finding dirt on the opposition, including launching an early blog he called “Minnesota Democrats Exposed.”
But he and others in this breakaway group no longer recognize their party under Trump – a party without principles, without history, and built entirely around a cult of personality.
These are not people who have abandoned their conservative principles. Certainly not former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson, who last month said in an opinion piece that “the Republican Party will continue its obedience to Trump and destroy our democracy.” Nor Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles, who co-chairs Republicans for Harris. Nor Jim McCain, son of late Arizona Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. Nor former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and vocal Trump critic, who on Wednesday announced that she will vote for Harris. Cheney, whose criticism of the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and vote to impeach him cost her her seat, said it wasn’t enough to not vote for Trump.
“It is crucially important for people to recognize – not only is what I’ve just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said during an appearance at Duke University.
Her father, who served two terms under President George W. Bush, said Friday that he also plans to vote for Harris.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” former Vice President Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.
“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said.
These “normie” Republicans, as they often call themselves, have a daunting task. To succeed, they must build a structure that allows Republicans to adhere to their conservative beliefs yet gives them permission to act decisively to block the threat of a second Trump term.
The key won’t be in forcing them to move left. They don’t want to abandon a lifetime of GOP principles, including believing in small government, free trade, and a strong defense. Neither will it come from Harris lunging right. Doing so would risk too much of her progressive base.
Instead, it will take a skillful reframing of what’s at stake in this election and the GOP’s role. It centers around a simple message: Country before party, together with a recognition that the old Republican party is gone and that, in Giles’ words, “We don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind.”
This will be a temporary truce, but one that could yield extraordinary benefits for the country and, ultimately, a new Republican Party finally free of Trump’s toxic, decade-long hold.
The spirit of compromise needed to vote for the opposition’s nominee could become the building block for a new, more principled and ultimately more successful Republican Party. In aligning with Harris, these Republicans display a level of discipline and maturity that will bode well for rebuilding their party.
Such an approach could have yielded the strong border policy crafted by a bipartisan group of senators and maliciously torpedoed by Trump. It could have tempered Democratic spending without resorting to gridlock. It could have shifted focus from the culture war nonsense to the harder but gratifying work of building a stronger economy.
A CBS opinion poll in August showed that 9% of likely voters who support Trump are prepared to at least consider voting for Harris. Tapping into that discontent, Republican Voters Against Trump launched an $11.5 million ad campaign in critical battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The ads feature former Trump voters talking calmly about why they are voting for Harris.
One of those voters, Lars Svahoe, 66, calls himself a strong-on-defense fiscal conservative. Trump, he says in a YouTube video explaining his choice, “turned out to be a disappointment. A clown.” Deporting 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrants “quite literally frightens me. That’s not what we want in a Republican party.”
That type of relatable persuasion, which meets voters where they are, can be remarkably effective. It was just such a campaign that made Minnesota the first state to defeat a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2012. Similar bans had already passed in each of the 30 states where they had been introduced.
Harris is wisely seizing on this new movement and making it easy for these disillusioned Republicans to join her. She is openly courting the disaffected, offering a sign-up to “reach out to other Republican, Independent and Trump-skeptical voters” about supporting her campaign. Republicans, including Giles, were given prominent speaking roles at the Democratic National Convention last month. Former Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, who along with Cheney served on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, was taken aback by the warm and thunderous reception he received from Democratic delegates.
Harris also has begun offering sensible, middle-of-the-road policies, such as her proposal on small business startups, that belie Trump’s attempts to categorize her as “Komrade Kamala.” She has promised to sign the bipartisan border bill, showing that compromise does not have to be a dirty word.
We have held together as a nation this long because the ties that bind Americans together are far greater than what divides us: the rule of law, the enduring principles in the Constitution, freedom that does not forsake responsibility, and an acknowledgment that the world still looks to this country as a leader.
If there is a new Silent Majority today, it’s the Republicans who yearn to break free of Trump’s dystopian vision of America on the brink of ruin but have done nothing.
The Republicans who can look past tribal divisions and cross party lines to vote for Harris can also provide something else this country desperately needs: a win decisive enough to shatter Trump’s fallback for challenging the election results.
Giles is actively stumping for Harris. Brodkorb says he is doing persuasion talks with Republicans, holding Zooms and creating lists. “I put my door-knocking shoes back on for the first time in a long time,” he told me.
Giles and Brodkorb are right. It’s not enough to stay home. It’s not even enough to vote for Harris. Republicans who want to defeat Trump and reclaim their party will need to reach out to others and build that breakaway group until MAGA fades into obscurity.
Patricia Lopez is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering the Midwest. She was previously the editorial writer for the Star Tribune.
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
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