共和党人不断为卡马拉·哈里斯背书
【中美创新时报2024 年 9 月 24 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）对特朗普重返权力的担忧，尤其是在他在 2020 年大选中撒谎和 1 月 6 日发生叛乱之后，最近几周，共和党政客和前共和党政府官员纷纷宣布支持哈里斯。现在，他们加入了哈里斯竞选运动在战场州的草根运动，该运动始于拜登还在竞选时，旨在在激烈的竞争中将共和党选民从特朗普手中夺走。对此，《波士顿环球报》记者吉姆·普赞格拉（Jim Puzzanghera） 作了下述详细报道。
前马萨诸塞州州长比尔·韦尔德（Bill Weld）表示，作为一名共和党人，他在 2020 年公开反对时任总统唐纳德·特朗普，在初选中与他展开不切实际的竞争，然后宣布投票支持民主党人乔·拜登，他感到非常孤独。
四年后，韦尔德有了更多的同伴。
“我对此感到很高兴，”他谈到越来越多的共和党人与他一起公开宣布他们将跨越党派界限，投票给副总统卡马拉·哈里斯时说道。“但我不认为这是我的所作所为。我认为这是特朗普先生的所作所为。”
对特朗普重返权力的担忧，尤其是在他在 2020 年大选中撒谎和 1 月 6 日发生叛乱之后，最近几周，共和党政客和前共和党政府官员纷纷宣布支持哈里斯。现在，他们加入了哈里斯竞选运动在战场州的草根运动，该运动始于拜登还在竞选时，旨在在激烈的竞争中将共和党选民从特朗普手中夺走。
“我几乎把所有的时间都花在了试图让唐纳德·特朗普远离白宫上，”宾夕法尼亚州共和党哈里斯联盟联合主席、前众议员吉姆·格林伍德 (Jim Greenwood) 说，该联盟将于周二在深红色的兰开斯特县举行集会。 “我支持每一位共和党总统候选人，从理查德·尼克松到米特·罗姆尼……但当特朗普加入时，我知道他是个糟糕的人，我不可能支持他。”
本月，这项努力获得了两项重大支持，前怀俄明州众议员利兹·切尼和她的父亲、前副总统迪克·切尼宣布他们将投票给哈里斯。在支持哈里斯的几位共和党人在民主党全国代表大会上获得发言权之后，保守派接连出击，其中包括前伊利诺伊州众议员亚当·金辛格和亚利桑那州梅萨市市长约翰·吉尔斯。
除了切尼夫妇和另一位著名共和党人、前美国司法部长阿尔贝托·冈萨雷斯的支持外，哈里斯竞选团队还发布了一系列其他公开的共和党支持。这些信函包括 230 多名曾为乔治·W·布什总统、前共和党总统候选人米特·罗姆尼和已故约翰·麦凯恩工作的人的来信，以及 100 多名前国家安全和外交政策官员的来信。周五，终身共和党人、尼基·黑利 2024 年总统竞选爱荷华州联合主席 Dawn Roberts 宣布支持哈里斯。
“副总统通过开展一场关于自由、民主和机会的竞选活动，将来自各个政治派别的选民聚集在一起，”该竞选活动的全国共和党外联主任奥斯汀·韦瑟福德在给《环球报》的一份书面声明中表示。“我们的共和党人支持哈里斯计划正在向反特朗普的共和党人、温和派和独立人士传达这一统一、鼓舞人心的信息。虽然我们看到支持率激增，但我们不会将任何人视为理所当然。”
特朗普驳斥了对切尼的支持，称迪克·切尼是“无关紧要的 RINO”，是“名义上的共和党人”的缩写。特朗普竞选团队似乎没有组织任何旨在吸引民主党人的努力。一位发言人指出，2022 年离开民主党的前夏威夷女议员塔尔西·加巴德和今年以独立候选人身份竞选总统的罗伯特·F·肯尼迪二世的支持，证明特朗普的竞选活动具有影响力。
共和党民意调查员乔恩·麦克亨利表示，他认为跨党派对哈里斯的支持不会产生太大影响，因为犹豫不决的选民太少了。
“很难想象偶尔犹豫不决，然后说，‘好吧，利兹·切尼过去了，所以我想我也会过去’，”他说。“那群人太少了。”
但即使是少量的选票也可能对势均力敌的战场州竞选产生影响。
本月，马里斯特学院对宾夕法尼亚州的一项民意调查显示，哈里斯和特朗普打成平手，4% 的民主党人表示他们支持特朗普，3% 的共和党人表示他们支持哈里斯。尽管该州超过八成的登记选民表示，什么都不会改变他们的想法，但 14% 的人表示他们仍然可能被左右，4% 的人表示他们尚未决定。
2020 年，拜登在宾夕法尼亚州、威斯康星州、佐治亚州和亚利桑那州分别以不到 1 个百分点的优势获胜。
“如果我们能够帮助推动和鼓励每个战场州的几千名共和党人出来投票给她，在如此势均力敌的选举中，这可能会有所帮助，”伊利诺伊州前共和党众议员、哈里斯代理权的共和党领袖乔·沃尔什 (Joe Walsh) 说。
他曾在新罕布什尔州为哈里斯竞选，并将与前佐治亚州副州长杰夫·邓肯一起参加周二的宾夕法尼亚州集会。沃尔什说，他们试图向考虑投票给哈里斯的共和党人表明，他们并不孤单，在这种不寻常的情况下跨越党派界限是可以的。
“我是国会里的茶党狂热分子。如果你 10 年前告诉我我会这样做，我会说绝对不会。但 [特朗普] 出现了，他改变了共和党的一切，”沃尔什说，他也在 2020 年初选中挑战了特朗普。“对我们很多人来说，一个很大的动力，特别是对很多当地的共和党人来说，是他们想要为夺回自己的政党而战。”
83 岁的克莱拉·莫尼尔曾在里根政府工作，并担任共和党人里克·桑托勒姆 2012 年在新罕布什尔州的总统竞选主席，她说她在 2020 年投票给了拜登。但她没有公开支持他。
今年，国会大厦暴动之后，她担任新罕布什尔州哈里斯共和党联合主席。
“我仍然是共和党人。特朗普不是共和党人，”她在谈到特朗普指责像她这样的人是共和党内反共和党人时说道，并指出她计划在 11 月投票给共和党人凯利·阿约特当州长。“你看看他的很多立场，它们甚至都不是立场。它们是指控。如果你仔细检查，就会发现它们是谎言。我认为他不知道共和党是什么意思。”
莫尼尔说，新罕布什尔州小组每周举行一次电话会议，志愿者们挨家挨户敲门，在全州分发哈里斯的标语。她对接待感到惊讶。
“我以为我会受到更多反对，但我没有接到一个人给我打电话，”住在戈夫斯敦的莫尼尔说。 “走在街上，当人们认出我时，他们会摇下车窗说，‘好样的，女孩。’”
韦尔德最近参加了共和党支持哈里斯运动的全国性电话会议，与老年人一起，他说副总统自参加竞选以来一直进行着强有力的竞选活动，这有助于吸引支持者。
“他们是主流共和党人，不是特朗普共和党人，而且有很多，”他说。
拜登在 2020 年获得了许多共和党人的支持，包括沃尔什、韦尔德和 120 多名前国家安全官员。沃尔什说，哈里斯今年更容易公开跨越党派界限，因为人们普遍认为她比拜登更有机会获胜，但共和党人的动机仍然更多地在于他们投票反对谁。
“如果我们不从内心深处相信特朗普完全不适合，他是一个可怕的人，那么大多数支持哈里斯的共和党人就不会支持民主党候选人，”沃尔什说。 “我听到的大部分都是特朗普需要被阻止，他对我们的政党不利，对我们的国家不利，这就是我支持卡马拉·哈里斯的原因。”
题图：2022 年 8 月 16 日，时任众议员利兹·切尼和她的父亲、前副总统迪克·切尼抵达怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔参加共和党初选投票。他们是越来越多的共和党前当选官员和政府官员中的一员，他们公开表示将投票支持民主党人卡马拉·哈里斯担任总统。Jabin Botsford/美联社
附原英文报道：
The endorsements keep coming for Kamala Harris — from Republicans
By Jim Puzzanghera Globe Staff,Updated September 24, 2024
Then-Representative Liz Cheney and her father, former vice president Dick Cheney, arrived to vote in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in the Republican primary election on Aug. 16, 2022. They are part of a growing list of Republican former elected and administration officials who have publicly said they will vote for Democrat Kamala Harris for president.Jabin Botsford/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld said he felt pretty lonely in 2020 as a Republican openly opposed to then-president Donald Trump, running a quixotic primary campaign against him and then announcing he voted for Democrat Joe Biden.
Four years later, Weld’s got more company.
“I feel great about it,” he said of the growing group of Republicans who have joined him in publicly declaring they will cross party lines and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. “But I don’t think it’s my doing. I think it’s Mr. Trump’s doing.”
The fears of Trump’s return to power, especially after his 2020 election lies and the Jan. 6 insurrection, have spurred an outpouring in recent weeks of Republican politicians and former officials in previous GOP administrations announcing their endorsements of Harris. Now, they’re part of a Harris campaign grass-roots push in battleground states, begun while Biden was still running, that seeks to peel Republican voters away from Trump in a tight race.
“I’m pretty much spending all my time trying to keep Donald Trump the hell away from the White House,” said former representative Jim Greenwood, co-chair of Pennsylvania Republicans for Harris, which will hold a rally Tuesday in deep red Lancaster County. “I supported every Republican candidate for president, from Richard Nixon through [Mitt] Romney … but when Trump came on board, I knew he’s a terrible human being and I could not possibly support him.”
The effort scored two major endorsements this month when former representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and her father, former vice president Dick Cheney, announced they would be voting for Harris. That one-two conservative punch came after several Republicans supporting Harris got speaking roles at the Democratic National Convention, including Adam Kinzinger, the former Illinois congressman, and John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz.
In addition to the backing by the Cheneys and another prominent Republican, former US attorney general Alberto Gonzales, the Harris campaign has released a slew of other public GOP endorsements. They included a letter from more than 230 people who worked for President George W. Bush and former GOP presidential nominees Mitt Romney and the late John McCain, as well as another from more than 100 former national security and foreign policy officials. On Friday, Dawn Roberts, a lifelong Republican who was Iowa co-chair of Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign, announced her backing of Harris.
“The Vice President is bringing together voters from across the political spectrum by running a campaign about freedom, democracy, and opportunity,” Austin Weatherford, the campaign’s National Republican Outreach director, said in a written statement to the Globe. “Our Republicans for Harris program is taking that unifying, inspiring message to anti-Trump Republicans, moderates, and independents. While we’re seeing a surge in support, we aren’t taking anyone for granted.”
Trump dismissed the Cheney endorsements, calling Dick Cheney “an irrelevant RINO,” an acronym for Republican In Name Only. The Trump campaign does not appear to have any organized effort aimed at luring Democrats. A spokesperson pointed to endorsements from former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran as an independent for president this year, as proof Trump’s campaign has reach.
Republican pollster Jon McHenry said he doesn’t think the cross-party endorsements for Harris will make much difference because so few voters are undecided.
“It’s hard to imagine being on the fence now and then saying, ‘Well, Liz Cheney went over so I guess I will too,’ “ he said. “That group of people is just so small.”
But even a small number of votes could make a difference in tight battleground state races.
In a Marist College poll this month of Pennsylvania, which showed Harris and Trump tied, 4 percent of Democrats said they supported Trump and 3 percent of Republicans said they backed Harris. And while more than eight in 10 registered voters in the state said nothing would change their mind, 14 percent said they still could be swayed and 4 percent said they hadn’t decided yet.
In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona by less than 1 percentage point each.
“If we can help move and encourage a few thousand Republicans in each of the battleground states to get out there and vote for her, in an election this close, that could help make a difference,” said Joe Walsh, a former GOP congressman from Illinois who is a leading Republicans for Harris surrogate.
He has campaigned for Harris in New Hampshire and will be at Tuesday’s Pennsylvania rally, along with former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan. They’re trying to show Republicans considering voting for Harris that they aren’t alone and that it’s OK to cross party lines in this unusual instance, Walsh said.
“I was the Tea Party crazy guy in Congress. If you told me 10 years ago I’d be doing this, I’d say no way. But [Trump] came along and he changed everything when it comes to Republicans,” said Walsh, who also challenged Trump in the 2020 primaries. “A big impetus for a lot of us, especially for a lot of local Republicans, is they want to fight to get their party back.”
Claira Monier, 83, who worked in the Reagan administration and chaired Republican Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign in New Hampshire, said she voted for Biden in 2020. But she didn’t come out publicly for him.
This year, after the Capitol insurrection, she’s co-chair of New Hampshire Republicans for Harris.
“I’m still a Republican. Trump is not a Republican,” she said of his accusation that people like her are RINOs, noting she plans to vote for Republican Kelly Ayotte for governor in November. “You look at a lot of his positions, they aren’t even positions. They’re accusations. They’re lies if you check them out. I don’t think he knows what a Republican means.”
The New Hampshire group has a weekly conference call and has volunteers knocking on doors and distributing Harris signs around the state, Monier said. She’s been surprised at the reception.
“I thought I would get more pushback and I haven’t gotten one person who called me,” said Monier, who lives in Goffstown. “Walking down the street, when people recognize me, they roll down their windows and say, ‘Atta girl.’“
Weld, who participated in a nationwide call recently with senior citizens as part of the Republicans for Harris effort, said the vice president has run a strong campaign since entering the race and that has helped lure endorsements.
“They are mainstream Republicans, not Trump Republicans, and there are a lot of them,” he said.
Biden had numerous Republican endorsements in 2020, including from Walsh, Weld, and more than 120 former national security officials. Walsh said Harris has made it easier to publicly cross party lines this year because she’s widely viewed as having a better chance to win than Biden did, but the motivation for Republicans is still more about who they are voting against.
“If we didn’t believe in our heads and our hearts that Trump is utterly unfit, that he’s a horrible human being, most of these Republicans for Harris wouldn’t be supporting the Democratic nominee,” Walsh said. “Most of what I hear is Trump needs to be stopped, he’s bad for our party, he’s bad for our country and that’s why I’m supporting Kamala Harris.”
