Hillary Clinton’s name inspired chants of “lock her up” at the GOP convention, but some leading female Republicans are now saying, “I’m with her.”
Meg Whitman, billionaire GOP fundraiser and former California gubernatorial candidate, is one of the newest additions to Clinton’s cause. The Hewlett Packard executive told the New York Times that she is going all in for the Democratic nominee.
“I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her,” Whitman said.
Whitman is not alone. Maria Comella, a former aide on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, has also defected to Clinton’s side. Comella told CNN she’s a lifelong Republican who believes Donald Trump does not represent any of the party’s “basic principles.”
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton in November and I’m voting for her because I don’t believe it’s enough to say you aren’t for Donald Trump,” Comella told CNN. “My mom and dad were Republicans, but they didn’t always vote Republican. There are times when principle trumps — no pun intended — party and we have to be okay with acknowledging that.”
Sally Bradshaw, a top adviser to Jeb Bush, has likewise said she is getting ready to vote for Clinton this fall. Bradshaw, who helped develop the Republican Party’s autopsy report released after a stinging defeat four years ago at the hands of President Obama, told CNN she would vote for Clinton if the election comes down to the wire.
“If the race in Florida is close, I will vote for Hillary Clinton,” Bradshaw told CNN. “I have worked to elect Republicans to national and statewide offices for the last 30 years. I have never voted for a Democrat for president, and I consider myself a conservative, a supporter of limited government, gun rights, free enterprise, equality of opportunity. I am pro-life. There are no other candidates [besides Trump] who were serious contenders for the nomination that I would not have supported.”
The female converts Clinton has won from the top ranks of Republican donors and campaign officials do not appear to have come as a result of anything Clinton has said or done. Instead, the Republican women have indicated they are flocking to Clinton to get away from Trump.
For example, Bradshaw told CNN, “As much as I don’t want another four years of Obama’s policies, I can’t look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump. I can’t tell them to love their neighbor and treat others the way they wanted to be treated, and then vote for Donald Trump. I won’t do it.”
Whether Trump and the Republican Party can repair its relationship with female voters before — or after — November is unclear.
