Michael Brodkorb, former vice chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, is part of an unlikely but growing wave that could sway the outcome of the November election: lifelong Republicans who have broken with Donald Trump to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
The movement is unprecedented in U.S. presidential politics. Its ranks now include hundreds of staffers of former Republican presidents and nominees, retired senior military officers, White House lawyers dating back to the Ronald Reagan administration, and many others.
I've known Brodkorb for years. He was a hardcore party guy who enjoyed finding dirt on the opposition, including launching an early blog he called “Minnesota Democrats Exposed.”
But he and others in this renegade group no longer recognize their party under Trump: a party without principles, without history, and built entirely around a personality cult.
These are not people who have abandoned their conservative principles. Certainly not former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, who said in an op-ed last month that “the Republican Party will continue to obey Trump and destroy our democracy.” Nor Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles, who co-chairs Republicans for Harris. Nor Jim McCain, son of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. Nor former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and an outspoken critic of Trump, who announced Wednesday that 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 to not vote for Trump.
“It’s critically important that people realize that what I just said about the danger of Trump should deter people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing down 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 an individual 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 through 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 an obligation to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution, and that is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said.
These “normie” Republicans, as they often call themselves, have a daunting task. To succeed, they must build a structure that allows Republicans to cling to their conservative beliefs, but also gives them permission to act decisively to block the threat of a second Trump term.
The key won’t be forcing them to move left. They won’t want to abandon their lifelong GOP principles, including a belief in small government, free trade and a strong defense. And it won’t come from Harris veering right, either. That would endanger too much of her progressive base.
Instead, it will require a deft reframing of what's at stake in this election and the role of the GOP. It comes down to a simple message: Country over party, along with a recognition that the old Republican Party is gone and that, in Giles' words, “we don't owe a damn to what's left behind.”
This will be a temporary truce, but one that could bring extraordinary benefits to the country and ultimately lead to a new Republican Party finally free from Trump’s toxic, decades-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 aligning with Harris, these Republicans are demonstrating a level of discipline and maturity that will serve their party well.
Such an approach could have led to the strong border policies crafted by a bipartisan group of senators and maliciously torpedoed by Trump. It could have curbed Democratic spending without creating gridlock. It could have shifted the focus from culture war nonsense to the harder but more rewarding work of building a stronger economy.
A CBS poll in August found that 9 percent of likely voters who support Trump are willing to at least consider voting for Harris. To tap into that discontent, Republican Voters Against Trump launched an $11.5 million ad campaign in key states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The ads feature former Trump voters calmly explaining why they’re voting for Harris.
One such voter, Lars Svahoe, 66, calls himself a fiscal conservative with a strong defense. Trump, he says in a YouTube video explaining his choice, “has 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 conviction, 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 gay marriage in 2012. Similar bans had already been passed in every one of the 30 states where they had been enacted.
Harris is wisely seizing on this new movement, making it easy for these disillusioned Republicans to join her. She is openly courting the disaffected, offering a sign-up form to “reach out to other Republican, independent and Trump-skeptical voters” to support her campaign. Republicans, including Giles, were given prominent speaking roles 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 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, was surprised by the warm and deafening reception he received from Democratic delegates.
Harris has also begun offering sensible, moderate policies, like her proposal on small business start-ups, which counter Trump’s attempts to label her as “Comrade Kamala.” She has promised to sign the bipartisan border bill, showing that compromise doesn’t have to be a dirty word.
We have stood together as a nation for so long because the bonds that unite Americans are far stronger than those that divide us: the rule of law, the enduring principles of the Constitution, freedom that does not compromise responsibility, and the recognition that the world still looks to this country as a leader.
If there is a new silent majority today, it is the Republicans who want to free themselves from Trump's dystopian vision of an America on the brink of collapse, but have so far done nothing.
Those Republicans who can look beyond tribal and party lines to vote for Harris can also achieve something else this country desperately needs: a victory decisive enough to break Trump’s slump in challenging the election results.
Giles is actively campaigning for Harris. Brodkorb says he’s been having persuasive conversations with Republicans, doing Zooms, and building lists. “I’ve put my door-to-door shoes 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 secessionist group until MAGA fades into oblivion.
Patricia Lopez is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering the Midwest. She was previously an editorial writer for the Star Tribune.
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
