Republican mayor from Arizona supports Kamala Harris and is helping lead a nationwide effort to encourage other members of the GOP to follow suit

 

Arizona Republican John Giles supports Kamala Harris (Yahoo!)

The Republican mayor of Arizona's third-largest city is supporting Democrat Kamala Harris for president, and he is encouraging others to follow suit. Why would a Republican do such  thing? John Giles, mayor of  Mesa, AZ (pop. 511,648), cites three primary reasons for crossing over the political fence::

(1) Donald Trump, in Giles'view, is unfit to serve as president;

(2) The Republican Party has put forth a candidate who is neither temperamentally nor intellectually suited to perform the job of president;

(3) It will be better for Mesa, the state of Arizona, the country, and the Republican Party if the GOP is  forced to look beyond Trump's buffoonish MAGA cult of personality and support someone, like Kamala Harris, who has the competence to do the job.

U.S. News' john Beomsoo Kim provides details behind a movement that appears to be unprecedented in postmodern American politics. Under the headline "Why a Swing State Republican Mayor Backs Kamala Harris for President – and Says Others Should Too; Arizona Mayor John Giles says Republicans of conscience must stop the cult of Trump," Kim writes:

In the two weeks since President Joe Biden dropped his presidential reelection campaign, support for Vice President Kamala Harris is growing – even among some Republicans. John Giles, the GOP mayor of Mesa, Arizona, a city of more than 500,000 about 20 miles east of Phoenix, recently endorsed Harris, calling the vice president the “competent leader we need.”

Yesterday, the Harris campaign launched “Republicans For Harris,” a coalition of more than two dozen Republicans across the country aiming to garner support from Trump skeptics, and Giles will serve as co-chair of his state’s advisory committee. Several other Republican politicians have joined the movement, and the campaign will host events in other key battleground states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Giles was invited to attend Democratic National Convention, but has not yet said whether he will attend.

 The following is from an interview U.S. News conducted with Giles:

U.S. News spoke with Giles, who was elected mayor in 2014, about how he decided to endorse Harris instead of his party’s standard-bearer, former President Donald Trump, and why he is calling for fellow Republicans to support Harris too. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity:

U.S. News: Why did you decide to endorse Kamala Harris?

John Giles: It wasn't a decision that I arrived at without a lot of thought. I'm a registered Republican and have been my whole life. My natural inclination is to want to endorse  Republicans. In the 10 years I've been doing this job, I've come to realize the importance of working with the federal government, including the White House, and that [national] elections have a real impact on the job that I'm doing and the well-being of my city…I would not be doing my job as mayor if I was silent. And I would not be doing my job if I didn't speak up and point out that Donald Trump is a very flawed candidate, and that a second Trump administration would not be in the best interest of my city.

You wrote in your recent Arizona Republic Op-Ed that the time has come to “return to the core foundations of the Grand Old Party.” What are those, and how is the current GOP different from recent iterations of the party?

It's critical for our country’s health and well-being that we have at least two strong parties. And unfortunately, that's not the case now. I was attracted to the Republican Party as a young person because I saw very principled leadership. I saw people like John McCain [the late senator from Arizona who was the GOP nominee for president in 2008] who put country over party, [and] had some guiding core principles having to do with protecting individual freedoms with encouraging individual resiliency and in seeking not to grow the role of government in people's lives. Those [principles] were the North Star of the Republican Party when I was a younger man.

There was always a far-right element, and that was fine. Diversity of opinion is great. And that's what we've lost. [Now] the far-right voices have shouted everyone else out of the room. Two years ago, Kari Lake [a GOP candidate] in the Arizona governor's race literally shouted at people like me and told us to “get the hell out of the room.” That's become what the Republican Party is – in Arizona and nationwide.

Why do you feel Republicans should choose Harris to build back the GOP?

Everyone – Republican, Democrat, independent – I think all of us ought to be reminded that we have an obligation to our country to vote for the best candidate. A lot of times, we use our partisan points of view to help us decipher who that is, but ultimately, I hope that all of us – or most of us – will walk into the election centers with the idea that we're going to vote for the best candidate based on things like character and commitment to the rule of law and to the United States Constitution. What I would hope for the Republican Party is to get back to that mindset and away from this personality cult that it's become.

Yesterday, the Harris campaign launched the “Republicans For Harris” effort in Arizona, where you’re a Republican co-chair of the state’s advisory committee. Tell us about that effort and what you will be doing. How many Republicans have joined this movement so far?

There's a long list of people – former Cabinet members of former President Trump's administration, former high-ranking federal officials, as well as people like myself at the state and local level. I'm proud to be on it, [and] it's a list that will grow.

How did people around you, other Republicans in your state and across the country, react to your decision? 

There's been some negative backlash. But, you know, one of my Republican acquaintances has pulled me to the side and whispered, “I'm glad you're doing this. I agree with you 100%. I can’t vote for President Trump.” I need to let those people know it's okay to step up and say out loud, “Donald Trump is not qualified to be our president, and we're going to work with a person of good faith in Kamala Harris and do what's in the best interest of our country.”

Do you think your decision could actually make a difference among Trump supporters? 

I think Arizona is going to be very close. So that's why I think it's going to be worth the backlash for me to do this. People like me stepping up in states like Arizona could actually make a difference. In Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, it's critically important for people in the political center to speak out and to have the courage to put up with a little bit of backlash in exchange for getting an outcome that's critical to the success of our country.

What would you say to those Republicans saying they don’t support Trump, but are also hesitant to support Kamala Harris based on her progressive agenda? 

Harris has evolved as a politician over the past four years that she’s been the vice president. She has become more to the center. I'll give you some specific examples: The bipartisan immigration package that was endorsed and negotiated by people like my senator, Kyrsten Sinema [Independent of Arizona], and Sen. [James] Lankford from Oklahoma…represented a dramatic improvement in border policy and immigration law. President Trump, for 100% personal, political and partisan reasons, killed that. Harris has already come out and said she will champion that. That's not a progressive democratic policy; that's a very much a bipartisan compromise. She's demonstrated a willingness to do that. She will not govern from the left; she'll govern from the center.