Republicans to rally support for Harris at the DNC
This year’s gathering of Democrats in Chicago will include at least a few current and former Republicans.
The campaign for Vice President Harris has been actively courting current and former Republican voters for months, trying to persuade them to support the Democratic ticket even if they don’t agree with all of the party’s policy positions. In June, several weeks before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, the campaign hired former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s former chief of staff in June to focus on Republican outreach.
Now, among the speakers at the Democratic National Convention on Monday will be Rich Logis, a conservative commentator from Florida who describes himself as an “ex-MAGA activist” and now leads a group for former Trump supporters like himself.
In a video scheduled to be broadcast at the convention Monday, Logis will tell his story of breaking with Trump about two years ago, according to a campaign official. In a transcript of a video viewed by NPR, Logis says Trump failed to provide “leadership” during the COVID pandemic.
“We were given almost nothing. It was a major betrayal to the country,” Logis says.
Logis goes on to say that he eventually “realized [Trump] had been lying about pretty much everything,” and makes a pitch to “people like me who voted for and believed in Trump” to join him.
“I made a grave mistake. But it’s never too late to change your mind,” Logis says, before endorsing Harris.
Logis represents the kind of major pivot on Trump that Democrats are hoping to see more Republicans and conservative-leaning Independents make by November. Several years ago, in videos posted on YouTube - most of which had no more than a couple dozen views - Logis was calling out Republicans he saw as disloyal to the party for criticizing Trump.
In a profile in the Tampa Bay Times earlier this year, Logis described developing a seemingly obsessive focus on Trump before ultimately becoming disillusioned with the former President and the MAGA movement over issues including the response of many Republicans - including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis - to the pandemic.
Last week, a “Republicans for Harris” affinity group gathered online to hear from several high-profile Republicans including Kinzinger, former Rep. Denver Riggleman, former Republican White House officials and others.
Additional Republican leaders are expected to speak at the Democratic convention in the coming days, according to a source familiar with the plans. Kinzinger is among them, according to a report by CNN.
