(Bloomberg) -- Representative Liz Cheney, a longtime Republican critic of Donald Trump, implored fellow members of her party to buck partisanship and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the Wisconsin town where the GOP was founded.
“Above all else, I know that the most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to our Constitution,” Cheney said at an event in Ripon, Wisconsin, flanked by signs that said “Country Over Party.”
“I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” she added.
Harris is seeking to appeal to Republicans uncomfortable with the turns their party has taken since Trump entered the political realm. Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, endorsed Harris despite stark differences on policy. Cheney explained her support of Harris by saying that Trump poses a danger to democracy.
“In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty,” Cheney said. “Violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do.”
Harris said the endorsement matters “a great deal” and said she envisions a post-Trump future where the Republicans and Democrats will return to “healthy” and “vigorous” debates.
“Anyone who has called for — I quote — termination of the Constitution of the United States, as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States,” Harris said.
The choice of venue, near Ripon’s one-room schoolhouse, was laden with symbolism for Republicans because of its role in the founding of the party in 1854. The site is now a national landmark.
To defeat Trump, Harris must siphon off a portion of traditionally Republican voters in the seven battleground states, like Wisconsin, that will likely to determine November’s election.
Cheney was first elected to a House seat from Wyoming in 2016 and served in the Republican leadership.
She was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over allegations that he incited the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by supporters seeking to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. And she was one of only two Republicans on the House committee that later investigated the insurrection.
In 2022, she was defeated by a Trump-backed primary challenger.
Even as the former president has solidified his grip on the GOP in his third run for the White House, the Cheneys are part of a group of prominent critics who have crossed party lines to back his general-election rival and whose support Harris has touted. Her campaign has highlighted that support in a bid to chip away at undecided independent voters and Republicans wary of Trump in what is a closely competitive presidential race.
Trump, in an interview with Fox News broadcast moments before Thursday’s event, called Cheney a “stupid warhawk,” adding that he thinks her support for Harris hurts the Democratic ticket.
Harris in an interview with CNN in August said if elected she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet. “I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican,” she said.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll in September found Harris leading Trump 50% to 47% among likely voters across seven swing states. In Wisconsin, Harris held a 3-percentage point edge over Trump, by 51% to 48%.
The Wisconsin event also marks Harris’ return to the campaign trial after visiting storm-ravaged Georgia on Wednesday to see firsthand the damage from Hurricane Helene, which left a path of devastation across the US southeast.
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