Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Sunday is launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump’s candidacy.
The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris’ team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.
The Harris campaign shared the details of the program first with The Associated Press before the official announcement.
A lot of people have a political party woven into their identity. It’s hard for them to accept that their party is no longer aligned with their views. If they still identify as Republicans but oppose Trump, they might just avoid confronting the cognitive dissonance by staying home or writing in a candidate for president. Plenty of others will pinch their nose and vote Trump because they just can’t escape seeing it as R vs D.
By appealing to them as Republicans, the Harris campaign is able to basically say that it’s ok, you don’t have to choose between being a Republican and voting against the insurrectionist would-be dictator.
You’re not wrong, tactically speaking about the current election, but at some point afterwards we’ve got quit enabling their denial and start helping them through the rest of those stages of grief.