A once prominent conservative commentator and two Republican former state officials threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris Friday and called on like-minded, anti-Trump conservatives to do the same.
Former Milwaukee radio host Charlie Sykes was joined by former state Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, and former Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Dave Deininger on a call with reporters Friday.
They joined more than 20 other Wisconsin Republicans who have endorsed Harris’ bid for the White House in her race against former President Donald Trump.
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During the call, Sykes said there are a lot of Republicans — like former U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville — who won’t vote for Trump and “would like to keep their hands clean” by writing in another candidate. But he says that’s not enough.
“The only two candidates who have a chance to win this election are Kamala Harris and Donald Trump,” Sykes said. “By voting for Kamala Harris, I think that we draw the line and say that Donald Trump should never be allowed anywhere near power again.”
Sykes was a prominent voice of conservative radio in Milwaukee from 1993 to 2016. Schultz served in the state Senate from 1991 to 2015 and in the Assembly from 1982 to 1991. Deininger was appointed to the appeals court by Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1996 and held his position as a judge until 2007.
Their endorsements come a little more than a week after Harris held a campaign rally in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, with conservative former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
Like Harris and Cheney did in Ripon, the conservatives on Friday said Trump is unfit for office, especially after his efforts to overturn the 2020 election
Deininger said he still thinks about Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump encouraged a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol to keep himself in power.
“The reality is, a second Trump term would be far worse, and far more dangerous,” the former court of appeals judge said. “If Trump regains power, he won’t have some of the safeguards, the guardrails that restrained him during his first presidency and on Jan. 6. He should never be trusted to be our Commander in Chief again.”
Schultz, the former state lawmaker, argued that Trump has pulled the Republican Party away from the “conservative values and principles” that he “worked tirelessly” to uphold during his three decades in politics.
He said it’s time to “set aside” partisan differences “for the good of the nation” and return to a place of bipartisanship.
“There is simply no time to wait,” he said. “I think that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the right people to lead us forward.”
In August, Harris told CNN she would put a Republican in her cabinet if elected. She reiterated that during an interview on “The View” this week.
The appeals to conservative-leaning voters come as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that about half of the state’s undecided voters are either Republicans or Republican-leaning voters. True independents make up about 40 percent of undecided voters, and Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters make up about 10 percent.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Friday’s endorsements. Last week, state GOP Chair Brian Schimming told WPR Republicans supporting Harris were a minority within the party.
“Ninety-six percent of Republican voters, almost a record, are with Donald Trump,” he said.
Even so, Sykes said this presidential election is about much more than Democrats versus Republicans or liberals versus conservatives.
“It is about our constitutional norm. It’s about the kind of country that we want to be,” he said. “It’s about whether or not America wants to continue to be what Ronald Reagan called, ‘the shining city on the hill.’”
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
