Republicans for Harris-Walz campaign launches in Michigan

A group of Michigan Republicans who oppose former President Donald Trump and their party’s embrace of the far-right MAGA movement are coalescing behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president.

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Trott, longtime Republican consultant Bill Nowling, and Jim Murray, who served as the deputy chief of staff to former Michigan Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson, launched Michigan Republicans for Harris-Walz during a virtual press conference on Oct. 3.

During the event, the trio expressed fear over what it would mean for Michigan’s economy and the future of American democracy if Trump were reelected to the White House this November.

“Look, my fellow Republicans, I have plenty of disagreements with Democrats, but Trump’s abuse of power and his disrespect of our Constitution and his radical economic plans go way beyond any policy difference,” Trott said. “A second term would be a disaster for our country, and that’s why so many Republicans have turned against him.”

Trott, who serves as the group’s co-chair, represented southeast Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. He said he won’t support Trump because of his attempts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and because of the Project 2025 agenda proposed by right-wing figures and put together by the Heritage Foundation, which includes provisions to ban abortion and expand the power of the executive branch.

Trott said he rejects Trump’s “chokehold” on the Republican Party, adding that Harris is the only candidate who would uphold her oath of office, protect democracy and implement an agenda to grow the middle class.

Harris’ proposed economic policies include expanding the child tax credit, increasing the earned income tax credit, and passing a federal ban on price gouging.

“She will bring home results for our state, because she stands for the values we hold dear here in Michigan: hard work, honesty and leadership,” Trott said.

The Michigan Republicans for Harris-Walz coalition joins a growing number of Republicans mobilizing behind Harris’ presidential campaign. The Harris campaign created the national Republicans for Harris initiative in August in an effort to court moderate Republican voters who don’t support a second Trump term. It includes over a dozen former GOP members of Congress and Trump administration officials.

Nowling, who called himself a lifelong Republican, said the party has left behind traditional conservatives and abandoned its fundamental principles of smaller government, respect for the rule of law, and willingness to support the country’s allies abroad.

“Those are all things that once mattered to Republicans, and they no longer matter to Donald Trump and his sycophants that follow him blindly,” Nowling said. “This is a party of ideas, not a party of personality, and Donald Trump has turned it into a party of personality.”

Speaking with reporters, Murray pointed to the more than 350,000 Republicans who rejected Trump and voted against him in favor of other GOP candidates in Michigan’s presidential primary. He said Harris is a unifying leader with a record of bringing members of both parties together behind important issues, such as the bipartisan border security bill that failed because, reportedly, Trump told GOP lawmakers to block it.

“This would have made real progress until Donald Trump called his friends in Congress and killed the bill because he would rather campaign on an issue than actually solve one,” Murray said.