Former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) said Sunday he’s voting for Vice President Harris, citing his conservative values and belief in the rule of law.
“I’m voting for Kamala Harris, not in spite of being a Republican or a conservative, but because I am a conservative,” Flake said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Velshi.”
“Conservatives, first and foremost, believe in the rule of law, and to have a president, a former president, who lost a free and fair election and then attempted to overturn that election. How can a conservative support such a person?” he asked, referring to former President Trump.
Flake said he also thinks Harris is better on issues that used to be more closely associated with the Republican platform, like free trade and that “tariffs can be used” but only in “certain circumstances.”
“But to believe that if we’re going to bring a bunch of money into the Treasury by using tariffs is just so antithetical to what Republicans believe,” Flake said.
Flake, who has endorsed Harris’s presidential bid, said he is playing “the long game” and wants to bring the Republican Party back to the values he says it once embraced.
“If you’re playing the long game, as a Republican, you want to return to traditional Republican values, which I think that’s a winning concept in Arizona. That’s a winning platform,” Flake said, when asked what “success” would look like for a Republican in this election.
“But we can’t go down this demographic cul-de-sac that we’re headed toward now as Republicans by following what the former president is doing,” he added.
Flake left the Senate in 2019, after opting not to seek reelection after his first six-year term. He became known in the Senate as one of the most vocal GOP opponents of the former president and suffered from poor approval ratings through the last part of his term. He endorsed President Biden in 2020 and served as Biden’s ambassador to Turkey until stepping down last month.