Ex-Michigan GOP Head Shreds Trump in Op-Ed Endorsing Kamala Harris: He’s Done ‘Grave Damage’ to the Party
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Gary Reed, the former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, published a scathing op-ed this week tearing into former President Donald Trump while endorsing Kamala Harris.
Reed slams Trump for moving the GOP away from the values that he embraced as a decades-long Republican, namely “fiscal discipline and a strong foreign policy.”
“I voted for Nikki Haley in the Feb. 27 primary in part to move the Republican Party past Donald Trump. She received 296,200 votes — 27 percent of the primary votes — at a time when it was clear that Trump was likely going to be the party’s nominee. Many of those 296,200 voters will not vote for Trump on Tuesday; I am one of them,” Reed began, noting that he is part of a key voting bloc that Harris’s campaign is targeting in a key swing state.
Reed goes on to write that both Trump and his running mate JD Vance “don’t advocate for the values of the Republican Party I once knew.”
“Rather than promoting trade with the rest of the world, they embrace protectionism and across-the-board tariffs that will make working families pay more for everyday goods. Harris is focused on targeted, strategic tariffs,” Reed writes, adding:
Trump has no fiscal discipline. He added $8 trillion to the debt during his first term. Every time he gives a campaign speech he promises a new handout to a different group. I don’t agree with all of Harris’ economic policies, but she is more fiscally disciplined than Trump.
Reed highlighting that he believes Harris will be a more responsible steward of the federal budget is rare argument made in the U.S. media from the right, although tracks with most assessments of both Harris and Trump’s spending proposals.
“Trump and Vance thrive on xenophobia and blaming immigrants for all of our problems, rather than coming up with sensible, conservative solutions to serious issues like rising housing costs. Though I may disagree with some of her policy solutions, at least Harris is proposing ideas to fix our problems,” Reed added, concluding:
Rather than promote a strong Reaganesque foreign policy, Trump and Vance admire dictators and want to abandon Ukraine and our NATO allies.
Trump promised an auto manufacturing boom and failed to deliver. Factories closed under Trump; auto factories are being built under Harris.
Trump and his allies have done grave damage to the Republican Party — both in Michigan and nationally. If we ever want our Republican Party back, it has to start with Donald Trump losing on Nov. 5. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris.
Read the full op-ed here.
