Updated October 16, 2024 at 05:00 AM ET
Brittany Prime has spent the last several months talking politics with women a lot like her — women who usually vote Republican, and who find themselves uncomfortable with former President Donald Trump.
“For moderate, center-right women, it's always going to be the economy,” Prime explained. “So a lot of it is reminding them that Donald Trump is not the better path forward.”
Prime’s background is in Republican fundraising, but she says she couldn’t support her party’s nominee in 2016. So she co-founded Women4US, a group working to persuade Republican women to oppose Trump and back Vice President Harris.
They’re focusing on several hundred thousand women in the key states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
At a pizza parlor in Montgomery County, Pa., one of the state’s key so-called “collar counties” outside Philadelphia, Prime says some women are afraid to tell their friends — or even their husbands — if they aren’t voting for Trump.
“You look at what Donald Trump said the other week at the rally, when he said, ‘Raise your hand if you're voting for Kamala Harris,’” Prime recalled, referring to a moment at a recent rally in Wisconsin when Trump asked for a show of hands.
“Actually, I should say don’t raise your hand,” Trump added. “It would be very dangerous. We don’t want to see anybody get hurt.”
Prime says that for many of the women she speaks with, those words resonate. Negatively.
“For women, that really seeps in,” she said. “So it's unfortunate and it's sad, but we're going to combat it in any way we can.”
They’re combatting it through phone calls and texting, and a message designed to appeal to mostly white, mostly suburban women who lean toward conservative policies.
For example, Prime says, in the first presidential election since the Supreme Court decision overturning decades of abortion-rights precedent, she’s framing the issue in terms of “reproductive freedom,” rather than focusing on abortion rights per se.
The Harris campaign is also working to mobilize disaffected Republican voters through outreach in key states. Earlier this year, the campaign hired a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer to lead those efforts.
On Wednesday, Harris returns to Pennsylvania, this time with several high profile Republicans in tow, according to a senior campaign official who spoke anonymously to share planning for the upcoming event. It’s all part of the campaign’s efforts to engage with these voters and show that Republicans support the vice president, giving other conservative voters permission to do so, too.
Ann Womble is one of those voters. A former Republican Party official from Lancaster County, Pa., Womble says she changed her registration to independent when Trump was nominated in 2016. She’s now co-chair of Republicans for Harris in Pennsylvania.
Womble says some of the people she meets are relieved to talk to someone like her, and echo her concerns about Trump.
“You know, like, ‘I am tired of Donald Trump. And it's this whole thing that he does to us is exhausting,’” Womble said of what she hears when she speaks to voters.
As it will again Wednesday, the Harris campaign has been touting endorsements from multiple prominent Republicans, including former members of the Trump administration, national security and military leaders, and elected officials, including former Rep. Liz Cheney.
At an event in Montgomery County last week hosted by the Super PAC Democracy First, Cheney recounted the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent. That's depravity,” Cheney told a crowd that gathered in a historic theater in Glenside, Pa., on Oct. 9.
"We can never become numb to that," Cheney continued. "Any person who would do those things can never be entrusted with power again."
For Don Keyser, who at 79 describes himself as a lifelong Republican, the message resonated.
“I'm ashamed to say I voted for Trump the last two elections, but I won't be voting for him this year,” Keyser explained. “January 6th is the day that broke the camel's back for me. What was done that day was reprehensible.”
When Harris rallies in Bucks County, Pa., on Wednesday, she’ll do so with those themes in mind: patriotism and unity.
She will reinforce her pledge to be a president for all Americans and the promise she’s made to include a Republican in her Cabinet if she wins.
Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger plans to speak in support of Harris at the event. Other former members of Congress and elected Republicans will be there, as well. Harris is due to be introduced by Republican farmers in Pennsylvania who have been featured in Harris campaign ads.
The campaign itself, and political organizers, point hopefully to the success of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who drew double-digit support in several states — including Pennsylvania, which has a closed primary — even after dropping out of the Republican race.
Craig Snyder, director of Haley Voters for Harris, says he thinks Harris still has a chance to persuade undecided voters, unlike Trump.
“He is really at or near his maximum vote now. And so for his campaign, mobilization is the whole ball of wax. It's everything. Whereas Harris still has room to grow,” Snyder said.
Snyder’s group is trying to reach several million former Haley supporters and other center-right voters in swing states.
Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump, notes that about one-third of Republican voters reject Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and accept that he lost.
“But we're also realistic about how tribal it is and how many voters, despite not liking Donald Trump on the Republican side, will still go along and vote for him,” Longwell added.
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