Republican campaign groups recruit conservatives for Harris
The campaign for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris could be relying on independent and conservative voters as a key part of her coalition.
Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns at an event in Oakland County on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.
Oakland County resident Barbara Weisserman still doesn’t know who she’s voting for.
“I know I’m very socially liberal but I’m fiscally conservative and I think that sometimes that goes well with each other but everybody seems to be, like, they have to pick one or the other and unfortunately, there isn’t a candidate,” Weisserman said Tuesday.
Describing herself as an independent, she voted for Republican nominee Donald Trump in 2016. She sat out in 2020, adding she “took a stand” and couldn’t complain afterward.
In a tight election, Weisserman is part of a narrowing group of swing voters whose vote is still in play.
As both major party presidential candidates embrace big-tent politics — in which they win support from many segments of the population, even though some of those constituents might be at odds with each other — the campaign for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris could be relying on independent and conservative voters as a key part of her coalition.
Weisserman supports both abortion rights and policies encouraging mothers to keep their children. She also wants to see more focus on what she describes as taking care of kids in her own backyard before helping her neighbor’s kids, a nod to Trump campaign messaging around immigration.
Weisserman said she feels like she understands Trump’s foreign policy platform better than Harris’.
“I don’t know what hers is. I know I watched very closely during the first two years of her vice presidency, and I wasn’t pleased. And then she went away, and I couldn’t figure it out,” she said.
Still, Weisserman is willing to hear Harris out. She’s already been to a Trump rally. Her friend took her to a Harris event Tuesday featuring former President Barrack Obama — that’s where she spoke with the Michigan Public Radio Network.
That Obama event, like other recent Harris campaign stops in Michigan, painted Trump as a threat to American democracy — one that life-long Republicans like Jimmy Greene had hoped would end during the presidential primary. Greene co-chaired Michigan efforts for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s Republican primary campaign against Trump.
“When we came on board with Nikki Haley, we felt like that was it. Like this was our last gasp to return to a party that we respected and a party that we weren’t embarrassed by,” Greene said.
Greene falls into the category of Republicans who don’t believe Trump is a real Republican in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, John McCain or Mitt Romney.
Greene, who said he just doesn’t trust Trump or his populist brand of politics, is now helping turn out former Haley voters for Harris.
“I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I welcome a Harris presidency. But I will say this much, I trust what they will do. And I know that sounds weird, but I know who they are. I know the kind of policies that they embrace,” Greene said.
He said, especially in Michigan, conservatives are used to living under Democratic control, and he believes they can get by with a four-year Harris presidency. He’s using his insider knowledge and connections to convince others who may feel the same way to make the same choice as him.
Over a quarter of Michigan Republican primary voters cast their ballot for Haley. That’s key for Michigan Republicans for Harris co-chair Bill Nowling.
“All we need to do is ensure that a majority of the Haley voters who voted in February against Trump show up and vote against him again,” Nowling said.
The strategy could be working. Recent nationwide polling from the Harris-supporting project Blueprint 2024 suggests fewer than half of Haley’s primary supporters are planning to vote for Trump.
Harris tried to reach those folks by campaigning with former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney in Detroit’s suburbs earlier this week.
According to the Harris campaign, some Republican guests sat behind Harris and Cheney during Monday’s program. But many of the attendees came in identifying as Harris supporters.
Despite the efforts, Michigan Republican Party leadership isn’t worried.
Chair Pete Hoekstra said while Harris is chasing conservatives, the Trump campaign is working on building out its own coalitions with blue-collar union workers, and Black and Arab Americans.
“The more we can go into those communities and not be contested, and the more you take them for granted, the better off we’re going to be and the larger our margin of victory is going to be,” Hoekstra said.
And Haley herself endorsed Trump for president back in July.
Republican National Committee leadership is highlighting Trump endorsements from billionaire Elon Musk and former Democratic presidential candidates Tulsi Gabbard and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as signs their own coalition is growing.
The Harris campaign hasn’t stopped reaching out to traditionally blue voting blocs. But polling has shown Trump making inroads, especially among Arab Americans who may be upset with Harris’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Some Democrats in that community say they feel betrayed by their candidate. Not unlike how some Haley voters feel like the Republican Party under Trump left them behind.
And with some members of both sides feeling disaffected, this race could come down to some newfound allies.
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