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Election 2024
Tom Crann

Former Minnesota GOP operative joins growing list of ‘Republicans for Harris’

Michael Brodkorb
This 2011 photo shows former Senate Republican spokesman Michael Brodkorb in St. Paul.
Jim Mone | AP

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A man who was once a fierce Republican operative is now calling on his fellow Republicans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.

Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, explained his position in an opinion piece in the Star Tribune this week.

“It’s about standing up for the principles the party once represented,” Brodkorb told MPR News host Tom Crann in an interview about his stance. “The Republican party was about freedom, and they were about hope, and they were about optimism. I remember when I first got involved in the party process, Republicans were big believers in the Constitution.”

“My advocacy in support of the Constitution is best reflected in supporting Harris and Walz than it is supporting Donald Trump and JD Vance,” he continued, pointing to comments former President Donald Trump made in 2022 questioning parts of the Constitution that prevented him from further contesting the outcome of the 2020 election.

Brodkorb joins a growing list Republicans who say they’ll vote for Harris. On Tuesday, more than 70,000 people joined a “Republicans for Harris” online rally, according to organizers who spoke with NPR. Like Brodkorb, many of those in attendance spoke of themselves as stewards of a pre-Trump Republican agenda and of democracy.

In a statement to NPR responding to the rally, the Trump campaign said the former president is “building the largest, most diverse political movement in history because his winning message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds. Kamala Harris is weak, failed and dangerously liberal and a vote for her is a vote for higher taxes, inflation, open borders, and war.”

Brodkorb and others say they disagree with Harris’ policies, but that’s a pill they’re willing to swallow for the greater good.

For more on Brodkorb’s decision to support the Harris-Walz ticket, click play on the audio player above.