Trump’s divisiveness leads Nevada GOP alumni to back Harris

Greg Brower, who served in the Nevada Senate as a Republican, is supporting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ bid for largely the same reasons he chose to register as a Republican during the early 1980s.

Vice President Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz have “a campaign based on optimism and making sure that our country, both domestically and internationally, plays a role in improving the lives of people,” Brower said. “It’s not a campaign that looks backwards. It’s not a campaign that’s about petty insults or vindictive promises to go after enemies.”

Brower, also a former U.S. attorney for Nevada appointed by President George W. Bush, said he valued the Republican Party for its “respect for the rule of law.” He doesn’t believe the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, encapsulates that trait, citing the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection as an example.

People protesting the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over then-President Trump tore down metal barricades outside the Capitol and were met by outnumbered Capitol Police officers in riot gear. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, were killed in the violence unleashed after a rally by Trump, who was later impeached for inciting an insurrection. Among Trump’s incendiary lines to his followers were “If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore” and “We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen.”

Brower isn’t alone in backing Harris.

More than 200 staffers for Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, signed a letter last week endorsing Harris and Walz.

The alumni also coalesced ahead of the 2020 election “to warn fellow Republicans that reelecting President Trump would be a disaster for our nation.” The letter cited how the group believes Trump threatens democracy, including his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the controversial Project 2025.

Project 2025, a 920-page guidebook meant for Trump if he is elected into office in November, was created by the conservative Heritage Foundation with input from more than 100 officials who served during his administration.

The plan would give the president more power than any other president in history, including calling for the replacement of thousands of nonpartisan federal civil service workers with political appointees loyal to the president. Such a move would render everything from the basic administration of government services to the reliability of reported statistics by the government into a political process.

Project 2025 also calls for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and moving its duties to the White House to advance “the next president’s conservative agenda.” Critics say this amounts to creating a privately controlled police force for the president, free to do his bidding, and removes bipartisan congressional oversight that currently exists for the Department of Homeland Security.

And that’s why the group of Republicans are speaking up.

In the letter, the alumni also touted moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states, specifically mentioning Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, for delivering the victory to President Joe Biden in 2020.

In an address last month at the Democratic National Convention, Republican Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Ariz., summarized the feelings of Republicans lost in their own party, saying: “I’m a lifelong Republican, so I feel a little out of place tonight. But, I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican Party.”

Giles was among six Republican notables who spoke in favor of Harris at the convention, including former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

“If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative,” Duncan said. “It’s chaotic and crazy, and the only thing left to do is dump Trump.”

Battleground polling highlights the competitiveness of the race in Nevada, where the Democratic presidential nominee has won the state’s electoral votes since President Barack Obama’s first victory in 2008.

Emerson College Polling shows Harris with a 1% lead at 49% in Nevada. The New York Times has Harris and Trump tied with 48% each as of Tuesday. Both are within the margin of error.

Daniel Stewart, who served as legal counsel for Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, was another Nevadan who signed the Harris endorsement letter. Stewart, now registered as a Democrat, was a Republican during Trump’s 2016 run, and said he opted to vote third party that year.

Stewart said Trump’s action in attempting to steal the 2020 election was a defining moment for his politics that shouldn’t be forgotten by voters.

“I’m an election lawyer. The election denialism, Jan. 6 — that was really the breaking point, and that was building for a long time,” he said.

He added, “I like to consider myself pretty much a moderate centrist. I want to hear all sides. I want to try to get the best policy. So, any real affiliation to the party has been, in some respect, tenuous because they’re always moving coalitions.”

Stewart said he would continue to vote for Republican candidates, using Gov. Joe Lombardo as an example of a Republican he believes does good work.

“Right now, I guess as long as Trump’s at the head of the party and I’ve been in opposition, I figured I may as well make it official,” Stewart added.

Brower said he anticipated that he would disagree with certain aspects of the Harris-Walz policy agenda, but that was also true for Republican candidates he voted for in the past.

“It’s maybe premature to talk about every single policy that we might pursue, but even if we don’t agree on everything, it’ll give us a chance to lead the country,” he added.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement that Republicans ditching Trump for Harris “is hilarious because nobody knows who these people are. They would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House.”

[email protected] / 702-990-8923 / @haajrahgilani