US: Mayor of major Republican stronghold endorses Kamala Harris
US: Kamala Harris has received the support of the mayor of Waukesha, Wisconsin, a significant Republican stronghold. In an interview, Waukesha’s mayor, Shawn Reilly, who has served since 2014, described his support as a “vote against Trump.”
“It’s challenging. “I think we’re at a crossroads now, but it’s easy to just say nothing and vote the way I want to,” Reilly told Fox6 News. “I feel in my heart that this is something that I need to come out and say: I am going to be voting for Vice President Harris to become our next president.”
“It is a vote against Trump,” he said. For all the reasons I mentioned, including the fact that Donald Trump has already been impeached twice, I am afraid that he will be our next president. The United States does not need someone with a history of felony convictions like him.
Raised as a Republican, Reilly claimed to vote that way “more often than not,” but he concealed the fact that he supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and the third party in 2016. After the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, he also quit the Republican Party, claiming he was “ashamed” to have been a part of the party.
He said, “I’m going to put up with repercussions for this,” after Harris’s support. “I know that many people will be unhappy with what I say, but there will also be many who will be pleased with what I have to say. In any case, that’s your everyday existence when you work at this profession.”
Prior to his term ending in 2026, Reilly said that he has no intention of competing for office again. In 2022, he was elected mayor of Waukesha again.
However, voters in Waukesha chose Trump in both 2016 and 2020, although by a slim margin, despite Reilly’s strength in the city.
The previous president won the city by eleven points in 2016. When he received around 60% of the vote in 2020, the margin narrowed to 5.5 points. Republican governor Scott Walker received 66 percent of the vote in the city in 2018 and 72 percent in 2014, while Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney received 66 percent in 2012.
With ten electoral votes and a very close election in Wisconsin, a key swing state, Trump’s vote percentage may drop much more this year.
FiveThirtyEight reports that Harris is presently 0.4 points up in the state, while pollster Nate Silver’s tracker shows that she is 0.6 points ahead. According to the tracker from RealClearPolitics, Trump leads the state by 0.1 points.
Other well-known Republicans have also endorsed Reilly. Liz Cheney, a former Republican Representative, gave Harris her support last month.
“I have given this a lot of consideration since I am a conservative who values and upholds the Constitution. Additionally, I will be voting for Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump due to the risk he presents,” Cheney said at Duke University.
A few days later, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney’s father, said he would also vote for Harris.
Susan Ford Bales, the daughter of former Republican President Gerald Ford, has also backed Harris. Bales has a Republican registration.
“She recognizes the good and the greatness in our country,” Ford Bales remarked of Harris.
“I have faith that she will uphold our Constitution and the rule of law. I am certain that Hillary will endeavor to unite all Americans in order to transcend politics.
“That is what America deserves from our president.”
Harris has also received endorsements from other Republicans, such as former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, former Trump advisor Anthony Scaramucci, and the son of former presidential contender and Senator John McCain.
A petition supporting Harris was signed in September by more than 100 former Republican members of Congress as well as national security leaders from the Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Trump administrations.
Former World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, former Defense Secretaries Chuck Hagel and William S. Cohen, former CIA directors Michael V. Hayden and William H. Webster, former National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte, and former Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld were among the 111 signatories. The letter was also signed by Olivia Troye and Miles Taylor, two former officials in the Trump administration.
