Liz Cheney to help Harris seek red votes in a swing state

Kamala Harris is heading to the birthplace of the Republican Party with some backup.

Harris will be joined Thursday by former Rep. Liz Cheney as she campaigns in Ripon, Wisconsin, which claims the title of birthplace because it was the site of a 19th-century gathering of people opposed to the expansion of slavery that eventually led to the formation of the Republican Party.

The vice president will be looking for the support of independent voters and disenchanted Republicans like Cheney who have chosen to defy their party and oppose the reelection of Donald Trump.

Harris, the campaign said in a statement ahead of the visit, is also expected to praise the former member of Congress from Wyoming for her courage in standing up to Trump as the vice chair of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

It will be the first time that Cheney, a lifelong Republican, has campaigned alongside Harris since endorsing the vice president last month.

Cheney, one of Trump’s most vocal critics, lost her seat after she condemned Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and voted to impeach him for inciting insurrection.

Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, also endorsed Harris, saying voters “have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”

Trump has dismissed their endorsements as “irrelevant.”

In Wisconsin, Harris plans to say that Republicans may not agree with her on every issue, but she will uphold the Constitution, the campaign said.

Harris has secured the endorsements of more than 200 people who worked for President George H.W. Bush; President George W. Bush; the late Arizona Sen. John McCain; and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

The number of prominent Republicans supporting the Democratic candidate is unprecedented in U.S. politics, though polls suggest their endorsements are showing up in the broader electorate.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 93 percent of likely Republican voters still prefer Trump over Harris — similar margins to where Trump stood in 2020.