Shawn Reilly, the mayor of the Republican stronghold of Waukesha, Wisconsin, mentioned Wednesday he’ll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, including he’s petrified of the choice ought to former President Donald Trump win in November.
Reilly has been the mayor of Waukesha, a metropolis about 15 miles from Milwaukee, since 2014 and had been a longtime Republican. However he left the occasion and have become an unbiased in 2021 after the occasions on Jan. 6, 2021, on the U.S. Capitol.
He advised Fox 6 Milwaukee and The New York Instances Wednesday evening he discovered the choice to publicly assist Harris tough, however known as his alternative a “vote against Trump.”
“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 advised Fox 6. “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 went on to inform the Instances that he was “very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president.”
“I think we’ll be heading down a road of authoritarianism and fascism,” Reilly mentioned, noting he ought to have endorsed Harris sooner “but it’s one of those things where I’d much rather do it now, even if it doesn’t have as much of an effect.”
Wisconsin is about to be a key prize on election evening as each Harris and Trump vie for a handful of battleground states that can possible determine the end result of the race in November. Biden gained the state by lower than 21,000 votes in 2020, though Trump gained Waukesha County — the third-most populous in Wisconsin — with practically 60% of the vote on the time.
Harris has spent a lot of the previous month touring to swing states throughout the nation and he or she held a rally in Waukesha on Monday alongside former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) in an try and woo undecided voters.
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Democrats have mentioned they know the county will possible vote for Trump, however hope these appeals will assist carve away some Republican assist and ship the state to the vice chairman.
“If we invest in this community, we block the Republicans from ever having a statewide victory in Wisconsin, because we’re undermining the heartbeat of the Republican Party in Wisconsin,” Matt Mareno, the chair of the Waukesha County Democratic Occasion, advised Wisconsin Public Radio earlier this month.