Jeff Flake endorses Biden along with two dozen former GOP House members

Flake spent just a single, six-year term in the Senate and left office in 2019, explaining his decision in a Senate floor speech that condemned the state of political discourse and Trump. Before that, he represented Arizona in the House for 12 years.

The slate of 27 Republicans endorsing Biden includes some who previously announced their support: former Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent, who left office in 2018, and former New York Rep. Susan Molinari, who represented a Staten Island and Brooklyn district from 1990-97. The new endorsers follow a number of Republicans who praised Biden during the Democratic National Convention last week, including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Cindy McCain, widow of the late Sen. John McCain.

The bulk of former Republican House members backing Biden are of the 1980s and 1990s vintage, with their time on Capitol Hill overlapping with his 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware. Several are a throwback to days when the GOP’s more moderate wing had sway in Congress, while others in office were fierce Republican partisans.

Former Rep. Ray LaHood, a Republican House member from 1995-2009, was President Barack Obama’s transportation secretary in the administration’s first term. Though LaHood’s son, Rep. Darrin LaHood, is currently a Republican House member representing his old Peoria, Illinois, district.

Former Rep. Wayne Gilchrist represented Maryland’s Eastern Shore for 18 years before losing a 2008 Republican primary challenge from the right by now-Rep. Andy Harris (though Harris lost in the general election that year, he beat the incumbent Democratic House member two years later).

Former Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina similarly got tossed out of Congress in 2010, when he overwhelmingly lost his Republican renomination bid to a more conservative challenger, Trey Gowdy, who was a House member 2011-19.

Other former Republican members backing Biden for president over Trump include New Englanders known for their centrism, even liberalism, while in Congress. Chris Shays represented a Connecticut district for more than 20 years and was a driving force behind the signature campaign finance law of the 21st century, McCain-Feingold. Shays lost his seat in 2008 to now-Rep. Jim Himes, as Barack Obama swept into office and took many House Democrats with him to Washington.

Former Rep. Peter Smith of Vermont, meanwhile, was a single-term House member, from 1989-91. In 1990 he lost his reelection bid to an independent candidate, and self-declared socialist, by the name of Bernie Sanders. The former Burlington, Vermont, mayor, now a senator and twice a Democratic presidential candidate, in some ways actually ran to Smith’s right in that race, emphasizing his support for gun rights and earning support from the National Rifle Association.

The full list of former Republican members of Congress who endorsed Biden is below: