Vice President Kamala Harris is continuing to add the support of notable Republicans for her White House bid, part of her campaign’s ongoing effort to try to woo moderate GOP voters disenchanted with the party’s nominee, Donald Trump.

What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris added the endorsement of former Michigan Rep. Fred Upton and Waukesha, Wisconsin, Mayor Shawn Reilly, a longtime Republican who left the party after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack

  • It's the latest in the Harris campaign's ongoing effort to try to woo moderate GOP voters disenchanted with the party’s nominee, Donald Trump

  • Upton was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol

  • The Harris campaign has poured significant resources into the two Midwestern states and has made outreach to moderate Republicans central to her White House bid

On Thursday, former Michigan Rep. Fred Upton — who retired from Congress after three decades of service in 2022 — announced he has already cast his ballot for president, and for the first time in his life, that vote went to a Democrat.

Upton, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said that the former president is “unfit to serve as commander in chief again” and charged that he “directly jeopardized the peaceful transition from one administration to the next.” (Trump was acquitted by the Senate, though seven members of his own party voted to convict him, the largest bipartisan margin for an impeachment conviction in U.S. history.)

“Time and time again, respected senior national Republicans have urged our former president to focus on governing rather than personal attacks, mistruths and continued false 2020 election claims,” Upton said. “Instead of heeding that advice, we see unhinged behavior not acceptable in most forums almost daily.”

Upton’s endorsement comes just hours after another longtime Republican official in a battleground state, Waukesha, Wisconsin, Mayor Shawn Reilly — who left the GOP in 2021 after the Jan. 6 attack — also said he would be supporting the Democratic vice president.

“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 told local FOX affiliate WITI, which first reported the endorsement. “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.”

He characterized his choice as a “vote against Trump.”

“I am terrified of Donald Trump becoming our next president,” Reilly said, adding: "He's already been impeached twice. He’s been convicted of felonies and this is not what the United States needs.”

Another Wisconsin Republican followed suit on Thursday: Robert Cowles, is the longest-serving member of the Wisconsin Senate.

"I really think this is one of the most important things I’ve done," Cowles, who has served in the Wisconsin Senate for 37 years, told WAUK radio in Waukesha, Wisconsin, adding: "Trump has to be defeated, and we have to protect the Constitution."

"The country will go on, even with some liberal things that Harris might do, or might not do," he added. "You have to have the foundation of the Constitution, to protect democracy. If you don’t have that, we will disappear."

Cowles was previously a Democrat before he ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1982 as a Republican. He won a special election to the Wisconsin Senate in 1987 and won reelection nine times -- and survived a recall attempt in 2011.

The Harris campaign has poured significant resources into the two Midwestern states, particularly the Michigan suburbs and red areas that Trump won in 2020, and Waukesha County, a Republican stronghold that encompasses the city of Waukesha and has gone for the GOP nominee every quadrennial election dating back to 1968. Trump won Waukesha County in 2016 and 2020 with nearly 60% of the vote, and Harris is hoping to cut into those margins to try to make gains in the Badger State.

The Democratic campaign has also sought to make inroads with moderate Republicans dating back to when President Joe Biden was the nominee and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was posing a small but statistically significant challenge to Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries.

Harris has campaigned alongside the likes of former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the only two Republican members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, along with dozens of other Republican former officials in an effort to paint Trump as unfit to serve as president again.

“I know that the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution,” Cheney said at an event with the vice president earlier this week. “And you have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the Constitution, who will be faithful, and Donald Trump.”

“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,” Cheney said. “And there will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5.”

Over the last few weeks, Harris has also received the backing of former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, at least 100 GOP national security officials and a group of more than 200 Republicans affiliated with McCain, former President George W. Bush and current Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. McCain's son has also backed Harris and campaigned with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. 

Spectrum News' Maddie Gannon contributed to this report.