More than 200 former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris accepts the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

More than 200 Republicans who worked for President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) or the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, warning in a letter that a second Trump presidency “will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”

The open letter with the endorsement was first published Monday in USA Today, with 238 signatures.

The group of former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers issued a similar letter supporting Joe Biden when he ran against Trump in 2020. In their new, pro-Harris letter, alumni from those three top Republicans were joined by at least five former staffers to the late President George H.W. Bush.

In the letter, the GOP alumni wrote that they are voting for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, despite policy differences.

“Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” they wrote. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

Those who signed the pro-Harris letter include Jean Becker, George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff; Mark Salter and Chris Koch, former chiefs of staff for McCain; David Nierenberg, Romney’s 2012 campaign finance chair; and David Garman, undersecretary for energy under George W. Bush.

The letter is not only supportive of Harris but critical of Trump. In it, the Republican alumni say Trump presents a threat to the United States and countries around the world, saying that he and his “acolyte,” running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), “kowtow to dictators like [Russian President] Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies. We can’t let that happen.”

The group also wrote that “moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states” were key in securing Biden’s 2020 victory as they “put country far before party” — and that they must once again “take a brave stand” in this election and support Harris over Trump.

In response to the letter, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email that the group “would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House.”

The letter highlights the continued divisions among Republicans over the party’s embrace of Trump. At the Democratic National Convention last week, several Republicans came out in support of Harris.

Stephanie Grisham, who served as Trump’s press secretary as well as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, described her evolution from “true believer” to a critic of the former president, saying that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was her last straw, The Washington Post reported. Grisham also claimed in her speech that behind closed doors, Trump mocked his supporters as “basement dwellers.” (In response, the Trump campaign described her as a “stone cold loser.”)

Other Republicans who spoke at the convention included John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., and former congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.