As Harris reaches out to Republicans, some explain why they’re taking her side
A crowd of Harris-Walz supporters applauds at a campaign rally in Ripon Thursday, Oct., 3, where former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, spoke in support of Harris. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
When Steve Michek voted for Donald Trump in 2016, the Republican sheriff from Iowa County was mainly focused on the fact that his party's candidate for president that year came from the private sector.
"I learned enough through my experience as sheriff, you can't run government like a business — it's not the same," said Michek, 64, who retired in 2023. "Nonetheless, I thought having some business-related experience certainly is not a bad idea."
During Trump's four years in office, however, Michek found the news from Washington increasingly disturbing. A revolving door of cabinet members hired and fired — "or he was belittling them in public," Michek told the Wisconsin Examiner. "I was like, 'What the hell? You don't do that.'"
Then came Trump's first impeachment in 2019 and early 2020, and his appointment of his daughter and son-in-law to "high-level jobs" in the White House. As sheriff, Michek said, "The people in the county wouldn't permit me to do things like that."
By 2020 "I'd had enough," he said. Michek cast his ballot that November for former Vice President Joe Biden as the only other practical option. Then came the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who sought to prevent Biden from being certified as the winner of the election.
"I was appalled and even terrified," Michek said. "I thought, what in God's green earth are we doing?"
Michek had been a leader in the state sheriff's association and visited Madison during the massive protests over Act 10, the legislation to end most union rights for state employees in 2011. He recalled those protests as primarily peaceful and "well-behaved."
What he saw unfold on television from the U.S. Capitol was entirely different. "This was worse than anything I'd ever witnessed," Michek said.
All of that explains why Michek was in Ripon Thursday to introduce former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney at a rally to showcase GOP support for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president.
"It is now clear to me that Donald Trump is a danger to our country. That is why I am voting for Vice President Kamala Harris," Michek told the crowd at Ripon College. "As we gather in the very town where the Republican Party was founded, I am asking my fellow Republicans to join me as we turn the page on Trump's campaign of division and chaos."
'Ronald Reagan conservative' makes common cause with Democrats
The Harris campaign is emphasizing its outreach to Republicans in the 2024 election, including knocking on more than 200,000 doors in Wisconsin counties where Trump won four years ago. Trump carried Fond du Lac County, where Thursday's rally was held, with 62% of the vote in 2020.
At the rally, a large sign declaring "Country Over Party" towered over one section of the audience, which greeted Cheney with cries of "Thank you, Liz!"
Cheney, who endorsed Harris in September, harkened to the Republican Party's founding in 1854 by opponents of slavery.
Underscoring her Republican credentials — "I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning," she quipped as the crowd laughed and cheered — Cheney called herself "a Ronald Reagan conservative." She defined that ideology as a belief in limited government, low taxes, a "strong national defense" and the premise that "the private sector is the engine of growth of our economy."
Although she had never voted for a Democrat before, Cheney said she would "proudly" vote for Harris in November.
"Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. She's working to unite reasonable people from all across the political spectrum," said Cheney. Lauding Harris for a career in public service, she added, "I know that she will be a president for all Americans."
She reiterated her call for Republicans to cross party lines in November. "We cannot turn away from this truth in this election — putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration," Cheney said. "It is our duty."
Taking the podium and calling Cheney "a true patriot," Harris thanked her "for your support and your leadership and your courage." She also thanked Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has said he will vote for Harris because of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"We both love our country and revere our democratic ideals, and our oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America is a sacred oath — an oath that must be honored and must never be violated," Harris said. She framed the choice at the polls in November as an answer to the question, "Who will obey that oath?"
Harris reprised an appeal that she's been making since the Democratic National Convention in August, when a series of Republican former office holders, including some former Trump aides, endorsed the Democratic ticket.
"No matter your political party, there is a place for you with us and in this campaign," Harris said.
Republican Harris endorsement letter
Michek was one of 24 Republicans to sign an open letter backing Harris that the campaign released Thursday.
Over the last year, he said, when talk has turned to politics among friends and acquaintances he has been open about his opposition to reelecting Trump.
"I would say I'm not going to vote for a criminal — he's a convicted felon," Michek said.
When some people have pushed back, "I ask, 'Would you vote me in for sheriff if I was a felon?' They'll say 'Oh, hell no!' So why would you for a president? I think it's an easy argument this time around."
He said he hasn't volunteered for the campaign or for the Democratic Party. He only learned about the rally and the open letter two days before the Thursday event when he got a request to speak.
"I didn't hesitate — I was glad to," Michek said.
The request came through a sheriff colleague who's a Democrat. "He knew there were things I didn't like about the Trump administration," Michek said. When the request came, "To me it was like, 'Wow, he was paying attention to the things I was saying.'"
Another signer was Mark Becker. A former Brown County Republican Party chair, Becker said he opposed Trump from the day the developer and reality TV star declared his candidacy and "just starting talking about migrants as, you know, terrible people," Becker told the Wisconsin Examiner during a Zoom call Sunday morning.
After unsuccessfully urging Republicans "to do the right thing back in 2016" and reject Trump, Becker became part of a nascent never-Trump movement that former Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes helped to spearhead.
Trump "spent his time in office dividing us and creating chaos," Becker said. "And then, of course, he capped it all off with Jan. 6, where he tried to overthrow and overturn a free and fair election and encouraged his supporters to violently storm the Capitol, resulting in 140 police officers being injured. It is clear that Donald Trump is a danger to our country, and this time there will be no guardrails."
Becker now hosts a weekly talk show on Civic Media radio stations in Wisconsin, where he aims for discussion that goes across partisan lines. His motto is, "I don't advocate for left versus right, but we advocate for right versus wrong."
Former Illinois Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, who was also on the Sunday call, turned against Trump in 2018 after "I made a mistake in 2016" and campaigned for him.
"Trump has reshaped the GOP into something extreme and dangerous," Walsh said — "a party driven by conspiracy theories, authoritarianism and personal enrichment."
Calling Jan. 6 "a defining moment for our nation," Walsh said that in addition to failing to uphold a peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election, "Donald Trump has pledged to do the same thing this year if he were to lose."
Insurrection, insults and invective
The Capitol attack on Jan. 6 tops the list of anti-Trump Republicans' reasons for opposing the former president.
"People lost their lives," Michek said. "Not everyone's been held accountable for that."
He referred to former Gov. Scott Walker's statement that people should "move on" from those events, although he didn't mention Walker by name.
"I don't think we should move on," Michek said. "It's similar to 9/11 — that's something we should never forget."
But criticisms of Trump don't stop there.
Former state Sen. Barbara Lorman of Fort Atkinson was another GOP veteran to sign the letter supporting Harris. Like Becker, Lorman said she opposed Trump from the first time he ran in 2016 — turned off by his divisive rhetoric and what she saw as a lack of a moral compass.
"It's about leadership," Lorman told the Wisconsin Examiner in a telephone interview. "What kind of a leader do you want? Do you want a leader who admires despots? Who admires Putin? Who admires [Hungarian President] Viktor Orban? [That] should be a price to pay for any political party."
Lorman, 92, served in the Wisconsin Senate from 1981 to 1995, an era when she served "with very nice Republicans" as well as with some legislators who "went to jail — both parties."
She her tenure there as a time when lawmakers were able to work across party lines.
"We need a strong two-party system," Lorman said. "And we need people who can compromise — who can negotiate, who can work in a group, and who understand you can't always have everything you want."
Those are not qualities she sees in Donald Trump.
"To slam the other side, to say if they win, you're going to die — I don't want a leader who talks like that," Lorman said.
She is baffled by Republican politicians who have thrown their support to Trump despite being targets for his scorn in the past — often because of their earlier criticism of Trump.
"His loose tongue has insulted so many people, and then when they get an opportunity they turn around and support him," Lorman said.
But the Capitol attack was the worst offense in her eyes. "After Jan. 6, and after watching him on TV over and over, I just don't understand why anyone would support him," Lorman said.
Walsh told the Wisconsin Examiner that being a Republican for Biden in 2020 was "a much lonelier position than it is right now to be a Republican for Kamala Harris."
The former Illinois congressman counts as many as 500 to 600 anti-Trump Republicans, including former members of Congress, former national security officials and veterans of past GOP administrations, all the way back to Reagan.
"This movement right now of Republicans for Harris is really something the country's never seen," Walsh said. In visits to all the battleground states in recent weeks, "I'm blown away by the local support of so many local Republicans in each of these states coming up to me when I'm in town with them, and saying, 'Joe, I'm with her. I'm a Republican. I'm going to vote for her.'"
