Michael Brodkorb, former vice chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, is part of an unlikely but growing wave that could influence the outcome of the November election: lifelong Republicans who broke with Donald Trump to replace Vice President Kamala Harris supports.
The move has no precedent in American presidential politics. The ranks now include hundreds of staffers from former Republican presidents and nominees, retired senior military officers, White House lawyers dating back to Ronald Reagan’s administration and many others.
I have known Brodkorb for years. He was a hardcore party man who enjoyed finding dirt on the opposition, including launching an early blog he called “Minnesota Democrats Exposed.”
But he and others in this breakaway group no longer recognize their party under Trump — a party without principles, without history, and built entirely around a cult of personality.
These are not people who have abandoned their conservative principles. Certainly not former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson, who said in an op-ed last month that “the Republican Party will continue its obedience to Trump and destroy our democracy.” Nor did Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles, who co-chairs the Republicans for Harris. Nor Jim McCain, son of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Nor former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and outspoken Trump critic, who announced Wednesday she will vote for Harris . Cheney, whose criticism of the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and vote to impeach him cost her her seat, said it wasn’t enough not to vote for Trump.
“It’s critical that people recognize – not only what I just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should deter people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing up candidates ‘ names, especially in swing states,” Cheney said during an appearance at Duke University.
Her father, who served two terms under President George W. Bush, said Friday he also plans to vote for Harris.
“In our country’s 248-year history, there has never been anyone who has posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” former Vice President Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election by using lies and violence to keep himself in power after voters rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.
“As citizens, we all have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will cast my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said.
These “normie” Republicans, as they often call themselves, have a difficult task. To succeed, they must build a structure that allows Republicans to hold on to their conservative beliefs while giving them permission to act decisively to block the threat of a second Trump term.
The key is not in forcing them to move left. They don’t want to give up their lifelong Republican Party principles, including a belief in small government, free trade and a strong defense. It will also not be because Harris swerves to the right. If she did, her progressive base would be putting too much at stake.
Instead, it will require a skillful reframing of what is at stake in this election and the role of the Republican Party. It revolves around a simple message: country before party, along with the recognition that the old Republican Party is gone and that, in the words of Giles, “We owe nothing to what has been left behind.”
This will be a temporary truce, but one that could yield extraordinary benefits for the country and ultimately produce a new Republican Party that is finally free from Trump’s toxic, decade-long grip.
The spirit of compromise required to vote for the opposition candidate could become the building block for a new, more principled and ultimately more successful Republican Party. By joining Harris, these Republicans are demonstrating a level of discipline and maturity that will bode well for the rebuilding of their party.
Such an approach could have delivered the strong border policies crafted by a bipartisan group of senators and maliciously torpedoed by Trump. It could have tempered Democratic spending without resorting to gridlock. It could have shifted the focus from the nonsense of the culture war to the harder but satisfying work of building a stronger economy.
A CBS poll in August found that 9% of likely voters who support Trump are willing to at least consider voting for Harris. Republican voters against Trump took advantage of that dissatisfaction and launched an $11.5 million ad campaign in critical battleground states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The ads show former Trump voters calmly talking about why they voted for Harris.
One of those voters, Lars Svahoe, 66, calls himself a fiscal conservative who is strongly on the defensive. Trump, he says in a YouTube video explaining his choice, “turned out to be a disappointment. A clown.’ Deporting 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrants “literally scares me. That’s not what we want in a Republican party.”
That kind of relatable persuasion, meeting voters where they are, can be remarkably effective. It was just such a campaign that made Minnesota the first state to reject a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2012. Similar bans had already been introduced in each of the thirty states where they had been introduced.
Harris is wisely taking advantage of this new movement and making it easy for these disillusioned Republicans to join her. She’s openly courting the disaffected, offering a sign-up to “reach out to other Republican, independent and Trump-skeptical voters” about supporting her campaign. Republicans, including Giles, were given a prominent speaking role at the Democratic National Convention last month. Former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who served with Cheney on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and was one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump, was surprised by the warm and thunderous reception he received from Democratic delegates.
Harris has also started offering sensible middle-of-the-road policies, like her proposal on small business startups, that belie Trump’s attempts to categorize her as “Komrade Kamala.” She has pledged to sign the bipartisan border bill, showing that compromise doesn’t have to be a dirty word.
We have stayed together as a nation for so long because the ties that unite Americans are far greater than those that divide us: the rule of law, the enduring principles of the Constitution, freedom that does not shy away from responsibility, and the recognition that the world still always considers this country as a leader.
If there is a new Silent Majority today, it is the Republicans who long to break away from Trump’s dystopian vision of America on the brink of the abyss, but who have done nothing.
Those Republicans who can see past tribal divisions and cross party lines to vote for Harris can also provide something else this country so desperately needs: a victory decisive enough to reverse Trump’s pushback to challenge the election results to break through.
Giles is actively searching for Harris. Brodkorb says he’s holding persuasion calls with Republicans, holding Zooms and drawing up lists. “I put my door knocking shoes back on for the first time in a long time,” he told me.
Giles and Brodkorb are right. It’s not enough to stay home. It’s not even enough to vote for Harris. Republicans who want to defeat Trump and reclaim their party will have to reach out to others and build that breakaway group until MAGA fades into oblivion.
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author