On Tuesday, former Republicans whose distaste for conservative populism has landed them in the Never Trump category — and were looking for a place to land with Kamala Harris — were left homeless once again when she went far to the left by selecting Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as a running mate.
On social media, Matt Lewis, podcaster and author of Too Dumb to Fail, posted gloomily, “If you were a Never Trump conservative who was hoping to rationalize a vote for the Dem ticket (a short-term alliance) it just got harder.”
Charlie Sykes, a former Milwaukee conservative radio host and current MSNBC contributor, who also falls in the Never Trump category, said on Morning Joe that he was “disappointed,” saying he “thought that [Pennsylvania Gov.] Josh Shapiro was the more obvious choice” and that Harris’s task should have been to reach out with a pick that could attract moderate voters.
Sykes argued that perhaps Walz’s folksiness could mask his far-left policies as governor, so his style would bury his substance.
“Maybe we are thinking about this all wrong … we are so used to thinking of this in ideological terms when maybe, maybe, it won’t be decided on policy and will be decided on personality and perception,” he said. Sykes said Walz may have a very progressive governing record, “But he reads moderate.”
Still, there are voters in this country, mostly moderate, independent Republicans, who are left wondering what to do next now that Harris has made it harder for many of them to join her coalition. Leland Sproul is one of those conservative voters.
Sproul voted for Donald Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 out of frustration with Trump, and found both of them wanting when this election cycle started, so he did not vote in the Republican primary this year. A suburban Atlanta father of a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, and a customer-training manager for a Fortune 500 company, he views the economy as the biggest issue determining his vote.
Sproul said when Biden pulled out of the race, “I think it was the right decision for him and his party. But that doesn’t automatically breathe confidence into Kamala.” He said Harris’s choice of Walz only continues his uncertainty as to where his vote will go.
“It has not stirred or roused me to action,” he said, adding he is not necessarily apathetic. Sproul said he still sees himself as what a conservative used to be, “But I find myself tired of labeling myself conservative to automatically oppose anything from another side of the spectrum. I’d rather policy be written with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in mind.”
“Uplifting and improving,” he said, adding, “instead of challenging. That seems to be a unique perspective in this political era.” Because no one has appealed to that sentiment, he said, “My vote is still very much up for grabs.”
In 2016 Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president that year, had plenty of Republicans for Hillary events attempting to bring them into her coalition to defeat Trump. Republican lobbyist Craig Snyder, who had started working for Clinton during the primary that year, filed statement-of-organization papers with the FEC for the political action committee by that name, even before Clinton was the nominee.
Once Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was tapped to be Clinton’s vice presidential nominee, he was headlining events in places like Asheville, North Carolina, that rolled out the welcome mat to undecided voters and Republicans. In Pensacola, Florida, just three weeks before that year’s presidential election, the local paper led with a story titled, “In Florida, trouble brewing for Trump,” with interviews with voters in “The Villages,” an affluent collection of golf courses and well-maintained communities north of Orlando, who were all part of the newly formed Republicans for Hillary club.
No such effort is visible yet this year.
Never mind for just a moment that my profession hasn’t once questioned Harris since she has become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, let alone as the sitting vice president whose boss has disappeared from his duties in office. What she has also signaled without saying a word is that this ticket is to appeal to the base of the party, and all of you voters who were looking for moderation are out of luck.
As one Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania said of moderate Republicans looking for a place to land, “Her team has not given any effort to win over those voters either in their rhetoric or in her choice for vice president; they are basically saying screw you."
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The tactic seems to be that he looks and sounds “Midwestern nice” and maybe personality will win the day over policy. Maybe. However, they left a lot of voters on the field who could have moved over to them with a Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) or Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
As Muhlenberg College professor Christopher Borick repeatedly warns, “This is a race that will be won on the margins in Pennsylvania. You always want to welcome people to your side, not turn them off.”
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