‘Republicans for Harris’ launches in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire initiative is part of a national “Republicans for Harris” campaign.

A “Republicans for Harris” campaign launched in New Hampshire this week, targeting Republican voters in the swing state who are dissatisfied with former President Donald Trump and his platform.

Former Green Beret Jim Steiner is leading the charge in New Hampshire for electing Vice President Kamala Harris. He’s working alongside Claira Monier, a former Reagan administration official who served as chair of Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign in New Hampshire. Steiner said the Harris campaign reached out to him to rally Republican support for her in the swing state.

“It’s an important piece of the campaign to rally all voters,” Steiner told Boston.com. “I think there are a lot of Republican voters who are less than enchanted with Donald Trump.”

Monier has “spent years working to elect Republicans up and down the ballot in New Hampshire” and said rallying for Harris was not a decision she made “lightly.”

“Donald Trump’s dangerous and divisive agenda is completely antithetical to the conservative values I’ve always fought to protect, which is why I am urging my fellow Republicans to join me in supporting Kamala Harris this November,” she said in a press release.

The local initiative is part of Harris’s national “Republicans for Harris” campaign — also backed by former Massachusetts Republican Governor Bill Weld — which aims to reach Republican voters across the country who are critical of Trump.

Steiner said his 72-hour-old campaign has already been receiving phone calls and emails from people, including Republican elected officials in New Hampshire, eager to join the cause.

“We are being solicited by Republicans who say they’d like to help as well,” he said.

With President Joe Biden stepping aside and endorsing Harris as the new Democratic nominee, Steiner said many Republican voters are excited about her prospects. Steiner said he was also pleased with Harris’s announcement of Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.

“There are many, many Republicans who may not have been happy with the notion of President Biden seeking re-election, but I think they’ve become re-energized over the notion of Vice President Harris,” he said.

Still, Steiner said he thinks President Joe Biden took office “needing to restore respect around the world for the Office of the President,” following Trump’s presidency.

“I think Vice President Harris has done much the same as vice president and will do much the same moving forward as president,” he said.

Steiner said he thinks Biden made the “right decision” to step aside, and that Republicans are more likely to vote for Harris.

“I think there was a measurable percentage of voters … who are holding their nose saying, ‘Well, I don’t want Donald Trump, but I’m not sure that President Biden’s got the energy to be reelected,’” he said. “Those folks have found a pleasant new focus in Vice President Harris. She brings the energy.”

Steiner says Harris’s campaign is a “momentum changer.”

“Harris is the right person in the right place at the right time, with the energy to win the presidential election,” he said.

Asked to respond to the movement, New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager said in an email statement to Boston.com that Trump is “clearly a better choice.”

“The Republican Party has a big tent but let’s be clear — we support free markets, less government, local control, individual responsibility and freedom, secure borders, and strong Second Amendment rights,” Ager said. “Kamala Harris is wrong on these issues.”

Although there are “plenty of issues” Steiner disagrees with Harris on, the “significance of our democracy,” he said, “outweighs policy differences.” Trump, who did not win New Hampshire’s electoral votes in 2016 or 2020, has faced scrutiny about the authoritarian rhetoric surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“I think the big picture does rest with maintaining our democracy as it has existed,” Steiner said. “Issues aside, it’s the sanctity of our democracy that’s most important.”