Democrats are eagerly hoisting rebel Republican politicians opposed to Donald Trump into the national spotlight in an effort to attract dissatisfied conservatives over to their side.
As the Democratic national convention has unfolded, a wave of Republicans have been given plum speaking slots and high-profile platforms to show their support for former vice-president Joe Biden, the newly minted Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
On Monday, the former Ohio governor John Kasich, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and former New York congresswoman Susan Molinari – all Republicans – spoke. On Tuesday, the convention schedule included an endorsement by the former Bush administration secretary of state Colin Powell and a video by Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Arizona senator John McCain. The night also included a video from Chuck Hagel, who served as defense secretary under Barack Obama despite having been a Republican senator for Nebraska.
“I think they’re just doing old-fashioned coalition building,” said Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican strategist who is helping lead the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization run by Republicans.
Alabama senator Doug Jones, a moderate Democrat, said the outreach and support from Republicans during the convention is meant to “to get folks comfortable with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris” and show that “that they are not going to lead this country in some socialist agenda”.
The inclusion of many Republicans during the biggest Democratic summit every four years illustrates the effort the Biden campaign is putting in to woo disgruntled Republican voters over to Biden’s camp.
“It’s important to let them know they’re not alone,” the Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond, a Biden campaign co-chairman, said. “It’s OK that there are Republican leaders that vote for Biden-Harris.”
Polls show Trump maintains a firm grip on most of his party. But, Democrats argue, the rebel politicians could be a gateway to a slice of the American electorate that’s attainable and potentially crucial to Biden ousting Trump from the White House.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
