Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, a stalwart Donald Trump supporter and election denier, once told so-called “McCain Republicans” — the old school pre-MAGA faction of the Republican Party — she didn’t want their vote. Specifically she said to McCain Republicans: “Get the hell out.”
Like Trump himself, who has long disparaged the late Sen. John McCain’s political record and even challenged his military heroism, Lake decided any non-MAGA Republican wasn’t worth wooing — and that she could win without the trad-GOP set.
In the process, Lake angered McCain’s influential daughter Meghan McCain. When Lake walked back on her dismissal and tried to welcome McCain supporters into her camp, Meghan, unpersuaded, replied: “We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.”
Now John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona — the country’s 36th-largest city and “one of its most conservative” — is taking Lake up on her original offer not to offer her or other MAGA adherents his vote. And he wants other Republicans to follow his lead.
BREAKING
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 29, 2024
John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, AZ announced he is endorsing Kamala Harris for President: "Our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out… pic.twitter.com/pvh4B3erCu
Citing Sen. McCain’s motto “Country First” in urging his fellow Republicans “to vote against Donald Trump,” Giles asserts that the current Republican Party has failed to “course correct” after the January 6 insurrection attempt and election denialism.
Instead, Giles believes, the GOP has imperiled the Republic and destroyed institutional confidence as it careened down the path of “political extremism.”
A respecter of law and order, Giles has tested his Republican supporters before, tweeting earlier this month about Joe Biden that he was “proud to work with a President that respects the rule of law.”
I am proud to work with a President that respects the rule of law. We don’t agree on all issues, but I never doubt his commitment to defending the Constitution. I commend @JoeBiden's leadership, bipartisanship and dedication to this country.
— Mayor John Giles (@MayorGiles) July 21, 2024
In his latest rejection of Trumpism, Giles wrote that “our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out their American Dream.”
It’s not what the Mesa mayor sees anymore, he lamented, as he endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president while urging that Republicans return to the values of the “Grand Old Party.”
Giles has reason to believe that his version of Republicanism is healthier for Mesa’s citizens and its economy — the city recently ranked in the Top 3 for economic growth in the U.S.
Mesa ranked number one for economic growth by CoworkingCafe! This is a testament to our economic development team and City’s investment in infrastructure, which has attracted numerous companies and created quality jobs. https://t.co/CIGYQczWMh
— Mayor John Giles (@MayorGiles) July 10, 2024
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