The mayor of the Republican-majority city of Waukesha in the battleground state of Wisconsin has just endorsed Kamala Harris, despite having voted Republican for most of his life, adding his name to a growing list of longtime conservatives throwing their support behind the Vice President's campaign.
"It's difficult. The easy thing to do is just not say anything and cast my vote the way I want, but I think we're at a crossroads now," Reilly said. "I feel in my heart that this is something that I need to come out and say: I am going to be voting for Vice President Harris to become our next president."
While the majority of Waukesha residents voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, the former President's lead in the city shrunk between the two election cycles, going from 11 points in 2016 to 5.5 points in 2020.
Waukesha mayor Shawn Reilly, who has served as mayor of the city since April 2014, explained the shift in his perspective to journalists at FOX 6, citing the outcome of the 2020 election as a large part of why his political alignment changed in recent years.
"It is a vote against Trump," he said. "I am terrified of Donald Trump becoming our next president for all the reasons I have indicated: he's already been impeached twice. He's been convicted of felonies and this is not what the United States needs."
Reilly, who was re-elected in 2022, even identifies Jan. 6, 2021, as the day he decided to leave the Republican Party, stating that he was deeply unsettled as he watched MAGA supporters storm the nation's Capitol in an effort to overthrow the results of a democratic election.
"Only voters already committed to Kamala Harris care one iota about what a liberal like Shawn Reilly thinks," Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming told FOX 6.
However, Reilly, who was prepared to receive backlash for his endorsement, said he doesn't plan on seeking re-election in 2026 anyway.
"I'm going to put up with repercussions for this," he said. "There's going to be a lot of people who are not happy with what I say, and there will be a lot of people who are happy with what I have to say. But when you're in this job, that's your daily life, anyways."
Reilly is the latest in a long list of Republican politicians and officials to endorse the Democratic presidential ticket. In September, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney announced that she would be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris come November, alongside her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. Harris also secured an endorsement from lifelong Republican Judge Glenn Whitely, who similarly cited the Jan. 6 insurrection as a reason for his endorsement. Furthermore, earlier this month, Harris was endorsed by a trio of former Florida officials who are also longtime Republicans, after they assumed new roles as Co-Chairs of the Florida Republicans for Harris Advisory Committee.
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