More High-Profile Republicans Join Anti-Trump Coalition, Announce Joe Biden Endorsement

More high-profile Republican leaders have come out in favor of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden. About 100 Republican and independent leaders said hours before the start of the Republican National Convention on Thursday that they would endorse Biden for president, trampling Donald Trump’s re-election efforts.

The announcement came in the wake of the formation of the “Republicans and Independents for Biden,” a coalition of former and current government officials and political operatives going up against Trump’s re-election in November. Funded by the anti-Trump Lincoln Project PAC, the coalition is the latest group of Republicans to declare their support for Biden.

The latest to join the coalition include one-time 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, and former Michigan governor Rick Snyder. Whitman, who has become one of Trump’s fiercest critics, is chairing the coalition’s steering committee, which includes Snyder, Weld, and at least 20 former members of the Congress.

“More than 180,000 Americans are dead from a pandemic that, with consistent leadership, could have been contained,” said Whitman. “Instead, it has been left to spin out of control by a president who ignored it, refused to lead and endangered American lives,” she added.

Whitman also accused Trump of undermining the rule of law and national security, dividing the Americans along racial lines, and failing the country in general. “Biden is a decent man, he’s a steady man,” she said. “Trump is trying to paint the world of Joe Biden as horrific—but that’s Trump’s America now.”

Snyder also decried Trump’s divisive tactics, saying the president has been leading the charge on incivility. “Having worked with Joe Biden and Donald Trump when I was governor, I believe Biden is the clear choice to put our country back on a positive path,” he said.

The “Republicans and Independents for Biden” is just one of the anti-Trump coalitions formed to oppose the re-election of Trump. Other anti-Trump groups include “Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden,” “43 Alumni for Biden,” and “The Lincoln Project.”

It remains unknown how these unprecedented campaigns by Republican members to oppose Trump will impact his re-election. Recent polls show that 90 percent of all Republicans still support Trump’s re-election efforts.