Former Representative Liz Cheney predicts millions of Republicans will secretly vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Former Representative Liz Cheney has predicted that millions of Republicans will quietly vote for Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump.
Polls continue to show a tight race between Harris and Trump in the final stretch of the campaign, with each candidate shifting gears to mobilize their voter bases as Election Day inches closer.
Harris spent the last few weeks on the campaign trail targeting independent and Republican voters who may have previously supported Trump but no longer feel comfortable doing so over issues including abortion and his unproven election fraud claims after the 2020 race.
Cheney, a Republican who represented Wyoming in Congress but has endorsed Harris after breaking with Trump over the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol building, made her prediction while campaigning with the Democratic nominee in Michigan Monday.
« I certainly have many Republicans who will say to me ‘I can’t be public.’ They do worry about a whole range of things, including violence, but they’ll do the right thing. I would just remind people, if you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody », she said. « There will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5. »
Her comments echo a similar prediction made by former Representative Barbara Comstock, a Republican who represented Virginia in Congress and has also endorsed Harris. She told The Daily Beast earlier in October she believes there will be a « silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will quietly vote for Harris. »
Democratic strategist Matt Bennett told Newsweek that 2024 may be « the inverse of what we saw in 2016, when Trump supporters were ashamed to tell pollsters they supported him, especially after the Access Hollywood tape came out. »
« But because they’re ‘silent’, we don’t really know—all we have is anecdotal evidence and a gut feeling about how some Republicans view Trump after that assault on the Capitol on January 6 », he said. « So, given that we don’t know who or how many there are, it’s impossible to say if this group will be enough to counter the slight slippage Harris has seen with Black men and the larger trend to the right among Hispanic voters. »
GOP strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek that while there is a « small group of Republicans who are ‘never Trumpers’, he believes Harris’ campaign has given most of them « nothing to attract them toward her candidacy », and that Trump gains with Black and Hispanic men could offset any quiet Harris voter effect.
