Republicans for Harris launches, aiming for Biden-like appeal to anti-Trump voters

(CNN) — The group known as Republicans for Biden is officially relaunching Sunday as Republicans for Harris, and aides on the revamped Democratic campaign are hoping that a much different candidate will be able to deliver on what had been a key part of Joe Biden’s electoral promise.

The rollout will include outreach from Republicans to Republicans, targeted ads and themed events as aides aim to convince voters that Kamala Harris is not a “San Francisco radical” and that Donald Trump and others have changed. In an election that is once again looking tight, the Harris campaign is hoping that Republicans repelled by Trump and independent moderates can help make a difference for the vice president in critical states.

At its core, the latest effort targets Republicans who see Trump as anathema or the kind of existential threat to democracy that would compel them to cross party lines and who had bought into Biden as an acceptable alternative.

Aides who have been shifting from @joebiden.com to @kamalaharris.com email addresses acknowledge now that the outreach to these Republicans had become difficult as confidence in Biden spiraled after his dismal debate performance. A post-debate call with supporters of Trump’s former GOP primary rival Nikki Haley was marked by several expressions of diminished confidence in Biden, another reflection of how deep the president’s problems were, according to one person involved.

But the Democratic energy around the switch to Harris is now reaping benefits, aides say.

“There’s a lot of excitement, because I think people were feeling unsure of where things were going, and now they are all on board,” said Austin Weatherford, a onetime chief of staff to former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Weatherford had just started gearing up with the Republicans for Biden effort in June when the race took a turn.

Weatherford told CNN that while Biden was “providing the alternative” on the topic of preserving democracy, “now people just see it more clearly. They feel it more clearly.”

On Monday, the new group will hold kick-off events in Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, aides told CNN. Already signing on as supporters: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (the 2016 Libertarian nominee for vice president who then challenged Trump in the 2020 Republican primary), former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Kinzinger, former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh (who also challenged Trump in the 2020 primary) and former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Former Rhode Island Rep. Claudine Schneider, who now lives in Colorado and has been leading efforts to organize other former Republican members of Congress, told CNN via email that she believes Harris is “the PERFECT candidate to oppose Trump,” calling her “intelligent, honest, hard working” and someone who “genuinely cares about every citizen, and about justice.”

Schneider said that she is interested in changing the political conversation back toward compromise and that the character differences between Harris and Trump are very much on her mind and the minds of others she’s spoken to.

Harris aides have quickly announced changes to many of her previous more liberal positions. Those include her past support for defunding the police, banning fracking and a federal jobs guarantee that is part of the Green New Deal. She is a different kind of candidate in a different kind of race, her aides now argue, and they hope that voters will respond differently this fall than they did to her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which creaked to an end just after Thanksgiving 2019.

“Harris has been doing that work. Now she’s in overdrive doing that work,” Weatherford said. “There’s limited time for her to make that case, but she’s making it. The more we see of her, speaking to the issues where the broader base of the general electorate is, you’re going to have more people fall in line.”

As for worries that Harris is too liberal, Schneider said, “I have a hard time these days in the application of the terms liberal and conservative — especially suggesting that addressing climate change is ‘liberal’ and other uses of conservative.”

Schneider, who served 10 years in the House from 1981 to 1991, said likeminded Republicans “are working toward a decisive trifecta for the Democrats” this year, referring to helping the opposing party retain the presidency and the Senate and flip the House. Their reasoning, Schneider said, was “so that 1) we can actually move our country forward and 2) give us time to resurrect a Republican Party that reflects the values of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.”

Campaign aides say Harris has been receiving support from Republicans who hadn’t previously been for Biden as well as from those who had. Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a CNN contributor who previously said he was voting for Biden, backed Harris in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed last week, declaring that “though my support for Harris didn’t come easily, it did come naturally” and calling her “the best vehicle toward preventing another stained Trump presidency.”

Trump’s problems with past Republican leaders was  evident at the GOP convention in Milwaukee last month: No living previous GOP nominee for president or vice president attended, including former President George W. Bush.

All of those past party leaders have expressed concerns, publicly or privately, about Trump — yet none had been supporting Biden, and to date, none have backed Harris.

The closest any has come is a social media post from Trump’s former vice president turned intense critic, Mike Pence, who two weeks ago praised Biden for dropping out of the race.

“After the assassination attempt on President Trump and President Biden’s decision to end his campaign, now is a time for leaders in both parties to project calm and send a message of strength and resolve to America’s friends and enemies alike,” Pence wrote.

In the time since, though, Pence has added several posts critical of Harris’ positions on taxes and job growth.

While Trump and his campaign have not done much to try to win over Democrats, Weatherford and other Harris aides will be leaning on former Trump administration officials, who will speak about how unfit for office they see him; on current and former Republican elected officials, who will speak about how the MAGA takeover means the party no longer represents traditional GOP values and principles; and on rank-and-file Republican women, who will put out testimonials on why they’re rejecting Trump.

“We want Republicans talking to Republicans,” Weatherford said, “because we think that’s the best way to make it work.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of former Rep. Denver Riggleman’s last name.

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