Harris campaign welcomes anti-Trump Republicans after Haley pushes back on group

Vice President Harris’s campaign is welcoming anti-Trump Republican voters after former Republican candidate Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign pushed back against a “Haley Voters for Harris” group for using her name.

“Our democracy is at its best when Americans speak up and participate in the election process. That’s exactly what millions of Republicans did this year as they rejected Donald Trump’s extremism during the primaries, and as they continue to speak out about his unfitness for office,” said Austin Weatherford, national Republican engagement director for the Harris campaign.

“Those voters have a home in the Harris campaign’s coalition,” Weatherford said, adding that the campaign “will keep working hard to earn their support.”

A pro-Harris project paid for by PivotPAC changed its name from “Haley Voters for Biden” after the incumbent’s historic decision to exit the race and endorse Harris for 2024 over the weekend. According to the group’s site, it’s encouraging “voters across the political spectrum, and Haley voters in particular, to vote for Kamala Harris in November.”

But Haley, who clashed with former President Trump along the GOP primary trail but has since endorsed him, knocked the project, and lawyers for her campaign sent a letter demanding the group stop “any use of her name, image or likeness that implies her support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”

“Kamala Harris and I are total opposites on every issue. Any attempt to use my name to support her or her agenda is deceptive and wrong,” Haley said in a statement.

The “Haley Voters for Biden” group has said on the social platform X that they “do not and never claimed to speak for Nikki Haley” — and that while they “proudly supported” her over Trump, the group now believes Harris “is better for the country.”

The former U.N. ambassador continued to rake in votes even after she left the White House race earlier this year, and those ballots have raised questions about where her supporters will turn this fall.

Haley encouraged the delegates she won during the GOP primary to back Trump, while Democrats have made plays to keep moderate Republicans out of the former president’s column.

“While the MAGA movement continues to push away voters who care about the future of our democracy, standing strong with our allies against foreign adversaries, and working across the aisle to get things done for the American people, the Harris campaign will keep working hard to earn their support,” said Weatherford, the Harris spokesperson.