Harris Courts The 250,000 Voters Who Rejected Trump In North Carolina Primary

APEX, N.C. Georgias former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan likes to talk about a whisper caucus of fellow Republicans who tell him quietly that they, like him, plan to vote for Kamala Harris next week.

John Robertson might just be a solid member.

He doesnt like to talk about politics with friends and neighbors to avoid arguments. He has voted for Republicans in the past. And he is absolutely done with Donald Trump .

Robertson was among the 36,358 voters in Wake County who backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in North Carolinas presidential primary. Eight months later, he is supporting the Democratic vice president over the coup-attempting former president.

The Republican Party is not what it used to be. Its not my fathers Republican Party, Robertson said as he stood in the early voting line Thursday at the John Brown Community Center. Its no longer Republican.

Brittany Samuel, a 38-year-old nurse, was another Haley-Harris voter in line to cast her ballot.

Hes a criminal, she said about Trump, whom she voted for in 2016 but not in 2020. And I just dont feel that a criminal should be running our country.

Samuel and Robertson were willing to talk about their decision to vote for Harris. Many others, North Carolina Republicans for Harris leaders said, would just as soon keep their choice to themselves.

At a news conference earlier Thursday in downtown Raleigh, Duncan appeared with former Republican Reps. Joe Walsh and Susan Molinaro, and former Trump White House national security aide Olivia Troye to urge Republicans who similarly did not want Trump to regain the presidency to join them in voting for Harris.

We know its going to be close, Duncan said. We know its going to come down to just a handful of votes, and we know exactly where those handful of votes are going to come from. And this is certainly one of those areas.

Duncan added that, given all the Republicans who approach him to tell him that they agree with what he says about Trump but that they will only express that view at the ballot box, he is optimistic that Harris will win.

I think the whisper caucus is going to show up in epic proportion on Tuesday, he said.

A quarter-million votes for Haley

As the last candidate standing against Trump in the GOP presidential primaries, Haley became the vessel for opposition to Trump within the Republican Party even after it was clear she had a nearly impossible path, following her loss in both the New Hampshire primary in January, then in her home state of South Carolina a month later.

By the end of the primaries in June, she had won 4.4 million votes, 20% of those cast. Of those, 1.2 million were in the seven states that will likely decide the November election, which has made the voters who cast them a key focus of the Republicans for Harris effort.

North Carolinians cast 250,838 votes for Haley in the March 5 primary, just under a quarter of all votes cast on the Republican side that day. It was the second-biggest anti-Trump turnout in the primaries among the seven swing states, with only Michigan registering higher.

Republicans for Harris officials believe that if she can win over three out of 10 of those quarter-million Haley voters, that would provide Harris the margin she would need to win in that state.

In North Carolina on Wednesday, Harris had one of those Haley voters introduce her at a rally a public affirmation of how important her campaign believes anti-Trump Republicans are to assembling a winning coalition.

Jennifer Bell said she voted for Trump in 2016 because she was a Republican and Republicans voted for their candidate in presidential elections. She said she quickly came to regret that choice.

Any Haley voters for Harris? Bell asked from the stage before a crowd of 8,000. Conservatives for Harris? Yes, were all a family now.

Bell, a 49-year-old engineer, told HuffPost later that she is appalled by what has happened to the party she grew up in. The Republicans used to the party of intellect, the party of business savvy. Thats all gone, she said, adding that she makes a point to wear her Republicans for Harris-Walz T-shirt whenever she goes outside to spread the word.

If you dont want to see Trump elected, you have to vote for Harris. ... Hopefully there was a conservative Republican out there in the crowd that maybe I got to change their mind.

The overwhelming majority of those who attended Harris rally at an open-air amphitheater on the outskirts of Raleigh were longtime Democrats . They said they were glad their candidate was reaching out to the other party.

I think its a fabulous idea, said Jill Bliss, who is 70 and a retired public school librarian.

Her husband, Bill Bliss, 72, and a retired advertising executive, said he couldnt understand some Democrats anger about Harris welcoming the endorsements of former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney both conservative Republicans.

When Democrats said, No, you cant forgive him, kick him out I dont think thats the right way to do it, he said.

The shy Harris voter

In 2016, the Trump campaign said they had determined the existence of shy Trump voters, those who would not tell friends or family or pollsters of their intention to vote for him to avoid criticism. Eight years later, it is Harris supporters who think and hope that there are in pro-Trump areas shy Harris voters, people who are fed up with the former president but would prefer to keep that view a secret.

I equate it to the 2016 stealth Trump vote, which nobody predicted, said Robert Orr, a former justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court and a Republicans for Harris co-chair in the state. I think in 2024, its a stealth vote for Harris.

A Christian group backing Harris, in fact, has created an ad targeting a subcategory of that group, women whose pro-Trump husbands expect them to vote MAGA, too. In the ad, narrated by actress Julia Roberts, two women catch each others eyes in the polling place and, out of view of their husbands, smile and cast ballots for Harris.

Former first lady Michelle Obama at a rally last week in Michigan made that same point. If you are a woman who lives in a household of men that dont listen to you or value your opinion, just remember that your vote is a private matter, she said. Regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose.

It was a message repeated by Liz Cheney on Sunday in an interview with CBS . I think youre going to have, frankly, a lot of men and women who will go into the voting booth and will vote their conscience and will vote for Vice President Harris, she said. They may not ever say anything publicly but the results will speak for themselves.

Of course, not every Haley voter will be persuaded.

Shiva Gangu said he voted for Haley in March in large part because he thought Trumps various criminal cases he was found guilty by a jury in May of a felony and continues to face dozens of other felony charges for his Jan. 6 coup attempt would be his undoing.

Trump was going through what he was going through, said Gangu, 48, as the early voting line inched toward the door.

Now, that hes come through, he said, well I dont want to say, but you can see my leanings.