Waukesha’s mayor, a longtime Republican, endorses Harris

The mayor of Waukesha, Wis., a longtime Republican in a critical battleground state, endorsed Vice President Harris in November’s presidential race, warning that former President Trump “poses a unique danger” to democracy.

Shawn Reilly, who has been mayor of Waukesha since 2014, announced his endorsement in a statement circulated by the Harris campaign.

“It would be easier for me to stay quiet and vote my conscience privately, but the stakes of this election are so important that I feel compelled to share publicly that I am voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and I encourage other Wisconsinites who care about our country to do the same,” Reilly said in a statement.

“Donald Trump poses a unique danger to American democracy — even his own advisors have said that he’s unfit to be President of the United States,” he added. “A second term would be even more dangerous than the first because there would be no guardrails. We can’t allow him to sit in the Oval Office again.”

Reilly, 63, is an independent, but he has identified as a Republican for most of his life, according to The New York Times. He told the news outlet he left the GOP after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and had never endorsed a Democrat before.

Waukesha is a city of about 70,000 people. Waukesha County is a major suburban battleground outside of Milwaukee that is home to more than 400,000 people. Trump won the county in 2020 with close to 60 percent of the vote.

Harris delivered remarks to reporters in Pennsylvania on Thursday in which she highlighted the endorsement from Reilly, as well as one from former Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

“This continues to be I think evidence of the fact that people who have been leaders in our country regardless of their political party understand what’s at stake,” Harris said.

“And they are weighing, courageously in many cases, in support of what we need to have which is a president of the United States which is an obligation to uphold the Constitution of the United States and our democracy,” she added.

Harris and her campaign have made a concerted effort to appeal to Republicans and past Trump voters who may feel exhausted or anxious about the prospect of sending him back to the White House. She has appeared at campaign events with former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), both of whom have endorsed the vice president.