By Jeff Mason, Trevor Hunnicutt and Gabriella Borter
RIPON, Wisconsin (Reuters) -Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump is “not fit to lead” the U.S., as she campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, on Thursday in Wisconsin.
Cheney and her father Dick Cheney, who was vice president under George W. Bush, are staunch conservatives and two of the most prominent Republicans to have endorsed Harris against Trump.
Both have sharply criticized Trump, the Republican nominee, calling his refusal to accept his 2020 election loss and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualifying.
“I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning,” Cheney joked, describing herself as a Ronald Reagan conservative. “I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said, her first vote ever for a Democrat.
Cheney described Trump’s actions on Jan. 6. as “depravity.” “He is petty, he is vindictive and he is cruel,” she said.
The former House of Representatives member said she and Harris may disagree on some things but they are bound together by their duty to the Constitution. Harris will be a president “who will defend the rule of law,” Cheney said.
Cheney’s comments could help Harris as she tries to court Republican and centrist voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
To win what polls show to be a very tight race with Trump, Harris needs to win over Republicans and independents wary of him without alienating her base, particularly in states like Wisconsin that can swing toward Republican or Democrat and are likely to decide the election.
Harris has adopted a center-to-right-leaning stance on several issues, including her staunch support for Israel, a border policy tough on migrants and an all-of-the-above energy strategy to keep fuel costs low.
Kathy Rubino, 74, a retired nurse practitioner and an independent at the Wisconsin event, said she plans to vote for Harris and praised Cheney.
“She’s representing who she thinks is best for the country,” Rubino said. “She stood up for what she believed, and that’s the important thing here.”
Recent polling shows Harris struggling to gain traction with Republican voters despite getting the public support of hundreds of former and current Republican officials in the military, national security and local governments.
While Harris led Trump 47% to 40% among all voters in a Sept. 20-23 Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 5% of the poll’s Republican respondents said they would back her, a figure close to the margin of error. Ten percent said they would vote for another candidate, did not know who they would vote for or would not vote.
At Thursday’s event, Harris praised Cheney – who opposed same-sex marriage and praised the Supreme Court’s repeal of the right to abortion – for putting her country above her party.
“There are many who know it’s wrong and then there are those who have the courage to speak out loudly about it,” Harris said of Liz Cheney’s criticism of Trump.
Harris repeated her message from the Democratic Convention that she would be a president for all Americans regardless of party, and also described Trump as unfit to hold the office.
The event was held in Ripon, Wisconsin at a one-room schoolhouse significant to the Republican party: it was the site of meetings that led to the party’s formation in 1854 and is referred to as the party’s birthplace.
Mary Anna Mancuso, a Republican strategist, said Harris was running “one of the most conservative platforms we’ve seen recently,” but said she thought there was little risk that a large number of liberals would reject Harris because of it.
“Where else would they go? They’re not going to go and vote for Donald Trump,” she said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Gabriella Borter; Editing by Heather Timmons, Sonali Paul and William Mallard)
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