Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney slam Trump for Jan. 6 insurrection at Ripon rally

Republican former Congresswoman Liz Cheney campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin’s birthplace of the Republican Party Thursday, where they said defeating former President Donald Trump is more important than political ideology.

Cheney and Harris spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 people at Ripon College during an event the Harris campaign described as putting country above party. 

Both framed Trump as a threat to American democracy for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

During her remarks, Cheney described herself as a “Ronald Reagan Republican” who believes in small government, family values and free enterprise. She said she’s never voted for a Democrat, but will “proudly” vote for Harris in November.

“Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation’s history,” Cheney said. “She’s working to unite reasonable people from all across the political spectrum.”

Harris framed this presidential election as a question of which candidate will uphold their “sacred” oath to uphold the constitution. 

She pledged that, if elected, she would uphold the constitution and the rule of law. Harris said Trump wouldn’t do the same, pointing to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“The President of the United States must not look at our country as an instrument for their own ambitions — our nation is not some spoil to be won,” Harris said.

Ripon has long been known as the birthplace of the GOP. It’s home to a one-room schoolhouse that hosted a meeting in 1854, which led to the creation of the Republican Party. The Little White Schoolhouse has been maintained as a local museum.

Harris briefly referenced that history in her speech, saying the crowd was gathered “not far” from where the Republican Party was born. 

“Liz Cheney stands in the finest tradition of its leaders,” Harris said. “If people across Wisconsin and our nation are willing to do what Liz is doing to stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals and the Constitution of the United States, then together, I know we can chart a new way forward — not as members of any one party, but as Americans.”

Thursday’s rally marked Harris’ fifth stop in Wisconsin since launching her presidential campaign, and her first to northeast Wisconsin.

Campaign stop part of wider ‘Republicans for Harris’ effort

The Ripon campaign stop came the same day that a group of more than 20 Republicans from across Wisconsin came together to endorse Harris. 

In an open letter, the conservative Wisconsinites — ranging from former Brown County GOP chair Mark Becker to former state Sen. Barbara Lorman, R-Fort Atkinson — called on fellow Republicans to reject Trump.

“We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris. But what we do agree upon is more important,” the letter reads. “We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump’s leadership.”

One of the Republicans who signed the letter is former Iowa County Sheriff Steve Michek, who spoke at Thursday’s rally. He said he voted for Trump in 2016, but was “appalled” when he witnessed Trump supporters assaulting U.S. Capitol police on Jan. 6, 2021.

“It is now clear to me that Donald Trump is a danger to our country. That is why I am voting for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Michek said. “As we gather in the very town where the Republican Party was founded, I am asking my fellow Republicans to join me as we turn the page on Trump’s campaign of division and chaos.”

During Thursday’s event, Harris praised Cheney for her “courage” and for being a “true patriot.” Cheney served as the top Republican on the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“We may disagree on some things, but we are bound together by the one thing that matters to us as Americans more than any other,” Harris said. “And that’s our duty to our Constitution and our belief in the miracle and the blessing of this incredible nation.”

Cheney, who represented Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced her support for Harris last month while speaking at Duke University in North Carolina. On Thursday, she said Trump oversaw a multi-pronged plan to try to ignore the will of the voters in 2020 to keep himself in power. 

She also criticized Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021,  encouraging the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol and his refusal to call them off — even after learning a civilian had been shot.

“Our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before: A former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our Republic by refusing to accept the lawful results — confirmed by dozens of courts — of the 2020 election,” Cheney said. “In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty.”

Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has also thrown his support behind Harris. They are among more than 200 Republicans who have endorsed Harris.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Brian Schimming told WPR that the Republicans supporting Harris were outliers in the party. He called Liz Cheney a “prop for Kamala Harris.”

“The fact that the Cheneys have decided to endorse a person who has a horrible record with Joe Biden over the last four years, which the voters generally agree with, frankly, says something about them, not about Republican voters,” he said. 

Schimming also said Republicans have “moved on” from the Jan. 6 insurrection and the 2020 election — despite Trump continuing to falsely claim he won in 2020 while on the campaign trail. A statewide canvas, partial recount and multiple court decisions and audits have shown that Trump lost.

Cheney confronted the idea that people are “over Jan. 6” in her remarks Thursday, criticizing comments Republican former Gov. Scott Walker made earlier this week. 

“A former elected official is so willing to minimize what happened … to say, ‘Don’t worry, our institutions held that day.’ We have a responsibility, all of us, to remind people that our institutions don’t defend themselves — we the people have to do that, ” she said.

Rural Democrats pleased to see stop in small-town Ripon

Harris’ stop in traditionally-Republican Fond du Lac County came just days after former President Donald Trump campaigned in Democratic strongholds of Dane and Milwaukee counties. Those stops underlie an effort by both parties to try to lose by less in areas where they traditionally struggle.

Trump won Fond du Lac County by roughly 15,000 votes in 2020, but lost the state by about 20,000 votes. Then-Vice President Mike Pence visited Ripon in the summer of 2020, and spoke at Ripon College. 

Harris is the first major party presidential candidate to visit Ripon since Republican Wendell Wilkie in 1940, who was defeated by Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to Ripon Historical Society President David Sakrison.

Ripon resident Stephanie Prellwitz, who describes herself as someone who votes based on the candidate and not political party, attended the event and says she plans to vote for Harris. She said Harris and Cheney stopping in Ripon is incredible for the community and underscores how the Republican Party has changed over time.

“The Republican Party was founded on anti-slavery, and they’ve shifted to demonizing immigrants, demonizing marginalized communities,” Prellwitz said. “What I appreciate about the significance of having the Democratic Party in Ripon is that, I think, it’s a nice, subtle way of pointing that out.”

Ripon College communication department chair Steven Martin attended the event Thursday, and agreed with Prellwitz’s assessment that the GOP has shifted away from its origins over the last 150 years. He said the Republicans who met in the Ripon schoolhouse were the “liberals of the day.”

He said he was excited that Ripon College students had the opportunity to attend a major political event, without having to travel to Madison, Milwaukee or Green Bay.

“I see a lot of my students here,” he said. “It’s great that (Harris has) chosen to come to Ripon and give the students here in a more rural part of Wisconsin a chance to see democracy in action.”

Another attendee, Neenah resident Lyla Butelefski, 9, came to the event with her mom, Becky. Lyla got a hug from Harris after the speeches ended, and gave the vice president a bracelet that read, “We are not going back.”

“I’m speechless,” Lyla told WPR. Her mother, Becky, said the event gave her “hope for the future” that her daughter and young girls “will be able to make the difference that we’ve always been trying to make.”

A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Harris maintaining a 4-point lead over Trump among registered Wisconsin voters.