Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is courting some of the GOP’s top conservative women leaders, like former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, on the presidential campaign trail to get more right-leaning voters, Politico reports.
During a town hall series in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Harris and Cheney pleaded with voters who label themselves as “pro-life” but are turned off by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to vote for Harris at the polls. The vice president explained that such voters are key to her securing the White House in November 2024.
She also highlighted that being joined on stage by Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, shows how times are changing in the political realm. “The last decade … has been about some powerful forces suggesting that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of what I think most of us believe — regardless of your party affiliation — that the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” Harris said while on stage in Michigan.
“For that reason, I’m not surprised that Liz Cheney and I are on the same stage 15 days before the election.”
The town halls were hosted by anti-Trump GOP strategist Sarah Longwell in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Oakland County, Michigan, and Waukesha County, Wisconsin — all relatively conservative counties where former GOP presidential nominee Nikki Haley performed highly in the primary. During the meetings, Cheney pushed forward on several key topics concerning voters, such as abortion. Once a stern supporter of pro-life legislation and cheered the overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to CNN, Cheney now understands the lack of fundamental reproductive healthcare for women — all at the hands of strict GOP law.
The mother of five continues to have an anti-abortion stance but says she is “disturbed” by the lengths her fellow Republicans went to rid women of proper healthcare. “I have been very troubled, deeply troubled by what I have watched happen in so many states. I have been troubled by the extent to which you have women who, as the vice president said, in some cases, have died, who can’t get medical treatment that they need because providers are worried about criminal liability,” Cheney said.
“We are facing a situation today where I think that it’s an untenable one.”
Cheney is one of several GOP leaders who once supported Trump and is now leaning toward Harris for President of the United States. Sarah Matthews, the former White House deputy press secretary for the Trump administration, endorsed the Howard University graduate. She also echoed Cheney’s sentiments, claiming that events like the town halls with Republicans are a great tactic that could move the needle in Harris’ favor. “When you see them on the campaign trail, it creates a permission structure for those disaffected Republicans who don’t like the rhetoric and the division he’s created in the last decade,” Matthews mentioned.
“I think there are enough of those Republicans, especially in a race as tight as this.”
A poll from The New York Times revealed that 9% of likely Republicans plan to vote for Harris on the Democratic ticket over their party’s candidate. Polls from the Wall Street Journal poll released in mid-October 2024 found both candidates are tightly tied in other key states like Arizona — with 47% to 45%.
Eight percent of Arizona Republicans said Harris has their vote.
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