'Country over party': Republicans stump for Harris at Virginia event

AFTON, VIRGINIA – Denver Riggleman and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu sipped bourbon and discussed threats to democracy outside of the distillery owned by Riggleman and his wife, on a humid Wednesday afternoon in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Between sips, the men wiped their brows and remarked about the importance of the upcoming election and the danger facing democracy in the United States, in front of a crowd of about 50 people. Signs that read “Country over party” and “Harris for President” were pasted up around the covered outdoor seating area where the event took place.

Riggleman, a Republican who represented Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District, worked as an advisor to the U.S. House Committee to Investigate January 6 in 2021. Riggleman had lost his 2020 primary election to the now-outgoing Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Bob Good .

"I was able to see crazy on a level that I don’t think a lot of other people could," Riggleman said to the crowd of a handful of Republican voters, a handful of Independent voters and a couple dozen Democratic voters. "I don’t want to vote for a felon. I don’t want to vote for somebody who worships dictators. I don’t want to vote for an insurrectionist, and I don’t want to vote for anybody who thinks January 6th was okay."

Riggleman had recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as part of the launch of “Republicans for Harris,” an effort to drum up support for the Democratic nominee among Republican voters who do not plan to vote for former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election. Riggleman had received Trump’s endorsement in elections twice before the former Congressman broke with the former President over January 6 .

"Like every lapsed Republican, the defeated former Congressman seeks fawning press coverage and appearances on MSNBC. I have every confidence he'll get both," Jeff Ryer, spokesperson for the Trump campaign in Virginia, said in a text message in response to Riggleman's endorsement of Harris.

“This new crew, led by Donald Trump, has decided to tear down the fabric of democracy,” Landrieu, current co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, told the crowd. “If [Republicans] want to have a party, going into the future… you have to vote for Kamala Harris.”

A surprise guest and a forceful rebuke of MAGA

Former Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays, a surprise guest at Wednesday’s event in Afton, stood up at the end of the discussion and told the crowd he had been praying for the Harris-Walz ticket.

“My prayer was, I didn’t want to just vote against [Trump], I wanted to vote for someone I could believe in,” he told the crowd. “Kamala Harris speaks to our better angels.”

Shays, a Republican who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 2009, issued a stark rebuke against the current state of the Republican party in an interview following the discussion.

“Donald Trump has stolen the Republican Party and made it all about him. Republicans were never 'MAGA Republicans' but now it’s about him and it’s destructive,” he said.

For the Republican Party to reclaim itself from the MAGA movement it must first elect a president who will treat the party with respect, Shays said.

“And [Harris] will,” he said. “She’ll reach out to common-sense Republicans.”

Shays had driven five hours to attend the Wednesday’s event, the day after he attended the Harris-Walz rally in Philadelphia, he said.

Virginia voters sound off

Jason Eagleburger, a Virginia resident and Republican voter, pointed to the former president’s 34 felony convictions, his record of apparent infidelity and sexual assaults as part of the reason why he plans to support Harris in November. He noted that his late father, Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger , met Trump a few times. Jason Eagleburger said he believed his father would also vote for Harris in the upcoming election, if he were still alive.

“I think there are quite a few Republicans that actually are going to come out for Harris,” he said. “I am truthfully going against Trump. I don’t think he’s qualified to be president.”

Eagleburger worked for Riggleman during the Congressional investigation into January 6. He said he does not want to see anything close to what happened on that day in 2021 again, regardless of the winner in the November contest.

“I really hope that violence doesn’t occur,” he said. “I’m just not sure that that’s going to be the case.”

Jeff Gleason, a Virginia resident and Democratic voter, expressed concern that the country could be in “very bad shape” if Trump were to win the election.

Gleason noted that bipartisanship needs to be returned to the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and expressed hope that the Harris-Walz ticket would be able to successfully work across the aisle.

“Both parties have become far too locked into ideological positions, and we need to back away from that and find ways to work effectively, collectively,” he said. “I think Kamala Harris has done a phenomenal job bringing the party together in a very short amount of time and it really speaks well to her skills.”

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: 'Country over party': Republicans stump for Harris at Virginia event