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USA TODAY

How many 'Never Trumpers' say they're not voting for President Biden?

George Fabe Russell, USA TODAY
3 min read

Geoff Duncan, Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, made headlines last week with an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution announcing that he plans to vote for President Joe Biden come November and calling for others to do the same.

“I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass,” he said.

Duncan is part of a small, if expanding, contingent of Republicans who say they now see former President Donald Trump as a threat that transcends party politics.

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Some “Never Trumpers” split the difference and say that, while they won’t vote for Trump, they can’t bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.

Ruling out Trump

Among the prominent Republicans who say they’ll vote for Biden is former U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, who broke with his party over the January 6 insurrection.

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who was also among the few Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in 2019 and 2020, said on NBC’s Meet the Press in December that he might vote for Biden but that he had “rule[d] out” voting for Trump.

More: Trump trial live updates: Listen to recording of Trump and Cohen discussing hush money

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Former Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, famously highly critical of Trump, said at the Connecticut Forum in March, “I will do everything I can to make sure [Trump] is never anywhere near the Oval Office again.”

She said, however, that she was undecided about officially endorsing Biden.

“I’m about results.”

Then-President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr in 2020.
Then-President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr in 2020.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr are some notable Republicans who have blasted Trump in the past for his behavior and questioned his fitness for office, only to say more recently that he is their pick for president.

Barr told CNN that he thought “Trump would do less damage than Biden,” despite calling the former president unfit for office.

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McConnell said after the January 6 attacks that Trump was “morally responsible” for them, calling his actions “disgraceful.”

But in a statement shortly after Trump edged ahead in the Super Tuesday primaries, he said, “It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States.”

Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu endorsed Nikki Haley in the Republican primary earlier this year, earning jabs from Trump, but that he supports him.

“I think January 6 was terrible,” Sununu told News Nation in May, but “I don’t necessarily think it’s a disqualifier because I’m about results.”

“I’m gonna write-in a Republican.”

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in 2020.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in 2020.

Former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, have all said that, while they can’t vote for Trump, they won’t vote for Biden either and will likely write in the name of another Republican candidate.

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“Character is too important for me” to vote for Trump, Ryan told Yahoo Finance in May. “I wrote in a Republican the last time. I’m gonna write in a Republican this time.”

And former Vice President Mike Pence will not be voting for Trump either.

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News in March. Pence broke with Trump over his handling of--some say incitement of--the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

“I would never vote for Joe Biden,” he said. “I’m a Republican.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Never Trumper' Republican Trump critics continue supporting him

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