Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk said Tuesday he plans to write in former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus on the presidential ballot in November.
Kirk became the first senator Tuesday to publicly state he will not support presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in his bid for the Oval Office because of his offensive comments about Hispanics, women and disabled people. Kirk suffered a stroke in 2012 and has been confined to a wheelchair since then.
The senator faces a difficult re-election this year in a race that “leans Democrat,” according to the Rothenberg and Gonzales Political Report. Kirk’s defection from the party’s likely choice may be a last-ditch effort to improve his image.
“While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for president regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party,” Kirk said.
He said that since he would not vote for the likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, he would write in a leader he saw fit to be commander in chief.
Petraeus resigned as CIA director in 2012 after federal investigators determined he had shared classified information with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Despite Petraeus’s breach of security protocols, Trump has regularly mentioned him on the campaign trail comparing his lesser offenses to Clinton’s email server. Trump has argued that Petraeus was treated too harshly, but Clinton has yet to be reprimanded for her actions.
