Kamala Harris campaign announces Republican advisory group to target GOP voters in Arizona

Vice President Kamala Harris is adding a group of unlikely allies to her reelection campaign: Arizona Republicans.

Mesa Mayor John Giles will co-chair a new Arizona Republican task force for Harris, the vice president’s campaign announced Sunday. He’ll lead the group with former GOP state Rep. Robin Shaw.

“As a lifelong Arizonan and longtime Republican, I strongly believe in defending democracy and standing up for our personal freedoms. Donald Trump and JD Vance represent the greatest threat to American values and institutions that I have seen in my lifetime - and that’s why I am committed to defeating him in November,” Giles said in a written statement.

Giles previously announced his support for Harris with an opinion column in The Arizona Republic. In 2022, Giles was part of a similar group of Republicans who backed the reelection of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

Other Republicans backing Harris include former mayors: former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana, former Apache Junction Mayor Douglas Coleman and former Jerome Mayor Dr. Jack Dillenberg.

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President Joe Biden, who ended his reelection campaign last month, launched a similar Republican effort during the 2020 election. Biden beat Trump by fewer than 11,000 votes in Arizona in 2020, the narrowest margin of any state that election cycle. The Harris campaign says it expects the race to be close again this year. Public polls show Harris trailing Trump by several percentage points.

Many of the Republicans backing Harris are also supporting Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in his Senate race against Republican Kari Lake.

Peggy Neely, the former vice mayor of Phoenix, tied her support for Harris to reproductive rights and the fall of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case. Additional supporters from city government are former Scottsdale City Council member Virginia Korte, former Mesa Vice Mayor Claudia Reeder Walters and former Paradise Valley Vice Mayor Dan Schweiker.

“Donald Trump's radical and regressive agenda poses the biggest threat to women's rights in decades, not just in Arizona, but across the entire country. Donald Trump must be unequivocally defeated at the ballot box to safeguard our future,” Neely said in a written statement.

Others in the advisory group include former Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court Judith Allen, former Arizona state Republican Party executive director Jane Lynch and finance director Todd Bradford, and former First Assistant Arizona Attorney General Robert Carey.

State legislature-level support comes from former state Reps. Deb Gullett, Pete Hershberger, Joel John, Steve May and Roberta Voss. Susan Gerard, who served in both chambers of the state Legislature, is also in the advisory group, along with Blake Sacha, a former candidate for state representative, and former state Sen. Bob Worsley.

“The choice this November is clear: Trump, a convicted felon who has promised to be a dictator on ‘day one’ if he is elected, suggested the ‘termination’ of the Constitution, and encouraged an attack on our Capitol on January 6th — and Vice President Harris, who cares about our country’s future and has worked to deliver for Arizonans,” John said in a written statement. “That’s why I’m supporting Vice President Harris this November and working with this advisory committee to bring more Republicans and independents into this movement to stop Trump.”

Three former aides to the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are also part of the group – Wes Gullett, Paul Hickman and Bettina Nava. Bryan Jeffries, the former president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, has signed on, as have attorneys Scott O’Connor, Yasser Sanchez, Robert Shuler and Elizabeth Rhodes Reich, and businesspeople John Graham, Kate Maynard Hickman, Philip Gerard and Patrick Edwards.

In its effort to reach GOP voters, the Harris campaign also has a Republican outreach director, Austin Weatherford, to help steer its approach. The campaign says it has spent “seven figures” to reach Republican voters, including TV ads aimed at anti-Trump Republicans and supporters of former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Arizona Republicans who have served in the Biden administration include former Sen. Jeff Flake, the soon-to-depart U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, and Cindy McCain, who was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and now leads the World Food Programme.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kamala Harris announces GOP advisory group to target voters in Arizona