RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign on Monday highlighted support she’s receiving from current and former Republicans ahead of her visit to North Carolina later this week with her still-to-be-named running mate.
Harris’s team described it as a “campaign within a campaign” to try to reach Republicans in battleground states, including the 250,000 people who voted for former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley over former president Donald Trump during the GOP primary this year.
During a press conference Monday, former Republican state Supreme Court justice Bob Orr, who has been a vocal Trump critic since his first run for the presidency in 2016, said he believes the former president poses a “threat to democracy”. Orr left the Republican Party in 2021 and is registered unaffiliated.
“I think the American people want to see an administration in which people are trying to work together to solve problems,” Orr said.
Former Republican Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan endorsed Harris after previously backing President Joe Biden, while acknowledging significant policy disagreements between himself and Harris. He’s now trying to convince other Republicans like him to transfer their support as well.
“I can make a point by not voting for Donald Trump,” Duncan said. “But to make a difference, I’ve got to vote for Kamala Harris. And I’m an extremely conservative individual.”
Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party responded in a email, “The only people concerned with Bob Orr’s opinion are Democrats because he is one. Facts are important. Republicans have never been stronger in North Carolina and we will continue to take the endorsements of the thousands of people every month who say they are proud to be Republicans. It is the Democratic Party that has bled half a million voters over the past eight years because of their far-left radical agenda.”
Chris Cooper, an expert on state politics at Western Carolina University, said the effort by Harris’s campaign is not just to appeal to so-called “Never Trump” voters but also those reluctant to back a Democrat.
“The attempt is to give the Republicans who may not like Trump but still want to be Republican permission to not just not vote for Trump, but to affirmatively cast a vote for Kamala Harris,” Cooper said.
Mason Di Palma, deputy communications director for the Republican State Leadership Committee, pointed to the decision last year by Mecklenburg County state Rep. Tricia Cotham to switch her registration from Democratic to Republican. That decision gave the GOP the final vote the party needed in the state House of Representatives to hold a supermajority capable of overriding vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
“That is a major indicator that there is deeply wrong with the Democrat Party,” said Di Palma, whose group works to elect Republicans in down ballot races. “They are not hitting home with working class voters.”
Following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, Di Palma said the message for Republicans would largely stay the same as they attempt to focus on issues like inflation and illegal immigration.
“This administration has not gotten it done,” DiPalma said. “I don’t understand how any Republican would be able to sit here and say we’re going to attach ourselves to another four years of these ultra-progressive policies.”
Harris will hold a rally in the Triangle region on Thursday with her running mate. The location has not been announced. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will be in Raleigh the same day. He plans to travel to some of the same locations as Harris this week.
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