Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is headlining a new campaign effort to motivate Republican skeptics of former President Donald Trump to back Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Duncan will join former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois in Roswell on Thursday to launch the Republicans for Harris in Georgia initiative. They’ll be joined at the event by Baoky Vu, a Georgia GOP elector who resigned in 2016 rather than cast a ballot for Trump.
The Harris campaign has big designs for the group. Officials say Duncan and others will help reach out to GOP voters and make inroads with conservative community groups.
They aim to target split-ticket voters who backed both Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022, along with the Georgians who cast their ballots for Nikki Haley in the March GOP presidential primary.
The former South Carolina governor captured 77,000 votes, most of them after she quit her presidential campaign. That’s more than six times the number of votes that separated Trump and Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020.
Many of these Haley backers are devoted Democrats who lodged a protest vote against Trump. But others are fierce independents or mainstream Republicans who are torn over whether to back the GOP nominee or Harris — or sit out the November race altogether.
Duncan may be the ultimate example of a Haley-Harris supporter. Long maligned by Trump supporters, he backed Haley in Georgia’s primary, then endorsed Biden after Trump emerged as the GOP nominee. Now he’s on the campaign trail stumping for Harris, including a recent tour of Pennsylvania.
“Nikki Haley voters will determine who wins the November election in swing states all across the country,” Duncan said, adding if they stay motivated Harris will win. “Between Trump’s toxic mouth and Harris’ surging momentum, this outcome seems more likely every day.”
Trump’s campaign has dismissed Duncan and other GOP supporters of Harris as phony Republicans. The latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows Trump with overwhelming support among Georgia Republicans, though independents are more split.
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