To my friends on the right,
For the overwhelming majority of my life was a Republican.
- I grew up volunteering for Republican campaigns
- I served as a page for 2 GOP state legislators in Washington state
- I worked for a U.S. Senator (Slade Gorton, R-WA), on his Senate staff and his campaign
- I was an appointee for President George W Bush (U.S. Department of Education)
- I was campaign chairman for my dad’s GOP run for county executive north of Seattle
- I was a delegate to the WA GOP Convention in 2012 for Mitt Romney
I was a Republican. Not a hard core conservative, but a Republican through and through.
Me and then U.S. Secretary of Education (and former White House Domestic Policy Advisor) Margaret Spellings in 2007.
And I believed. I believed in right-of-center ideas. I learned from a host of (mostly) good candidates and elected officials about the value of public service and good government. I learned how bloody hard competitive campaigns are. I worked on them freely, and with passion.
My professional career was shaped by my time in politics and government. After Sen. Gorton, I worked for a biotech trade association I knew from my days in the Senate. Then on to the Bush Administration, based in large part on connections and relationships built in the Senate and coordinating with the 2000 Bush campaign. That positioned me to later join Premera Blue Cross, and on to where I am today.
Along the way I built a public voice as a Republican and on the right. I ran for, won, and served in a non-partisan office, where my partisan bona fides were well known. I wrote guest op-ed columns and letters to the editor in the Seattle media market arguing for conservative policy solutions. I ended up being the most prolific writer at the leading right-of-center political blog in Washington state during the 2008 campaign cycle.
Both my profession and my voice were Republican. That was me.
Then Trump happened. I functionally left the GOP when we became the nominee in 2016. My thoughts were clear then that Trump was unfit for office. That proved accurate.
I voted for a Democrat for President for the first time ever in 2020. I even did videos for (Bush) 43 Alumni for Biden and Republican Voters Against Trump that were on social media and a swing state TV ad. Trump was that bad as President.
And that was before January 6th. No matter how many times the Trump supporters and the anti-anti-Trump crowd try to minimize that day, it was a singularly disqualifying event. Donald J. Trump should never be near ANY public office ever again.
I also haven’t loved Joe Biden as President. I happily endorsed and voted for him over Trump. I like a number of things, but definitely not all, he has done as President, including support for Ukraine, rebuilding our NATO alliances, and more. I also decided never to vote for him again – if he was running against anyone not named Trump – after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the pathetic public handling of that debacle.
And we all saw what happened with Biden’s elderly decline.
I was ready to still vote for a lesser version of Biden over Trump, but happy he stepped aside. I knew for reasons of campaign logistics and calendar reality that Kamala Harris was the only realistic option to replace Biden on the ticket at the time he bowed out; everything else was a West Wing fantasy.
But I wasn’t initially thrilled about Harris as the nominee, purely from the standpoint of beating Trump. Her 2020 primary campaign for President was bad, on multiple levels, ranging from ideological positioning to staff and candidate performance. Her record as a Senator from California was run-of-the-mill Democratic. And her time as VP has not been noteworthy.
She has since surprised me.
One of the first clear changes from Biden to Harris was the tone and substance of campaign messaging. While most of the campaign staff remains the same outside of the most senior level, the immediate difference was clear: punchier, more direct, and more…modern.
One can joke about “brat summer” but the campaign leaning into that, as well as labeling Trump & JD Vance “weird,” said a lot. Especially after the unifying factor in the GOP losing highly winnable races in 2022 was general election voters determining Trumpy candidates like Kari Lake and Blake Masters and Doug Mastriano were, well, too damn weird.
Then came the candidate herself. Aside the from the radical change in vibe from the Biden campaign, came an energetic, joyful warrior in place of a defensive old fellow who had lost a step.
Joy.
It’s been a hot minute since that word was part of our political lexicon.
But, joy it is. A joyful top of the ticket. A joyful VP selection. And, damn, those rally crowds. The largest majority in American politics today is not Republican or Democratic, it is the anti-Trump coalition. And holy hell is an important part of that coalition energized. Gone is the gloom of an unenthusiastic vote for a weak Biden candidacy, here today is the joy of a better option against Trump.
And that’s really what Kamala Harris was for me: a better option against Trump. Then came her speech at the Democratic Convention. Big swaths of that speech spoke to love of country, passion for America, and a strong foreign policy. She sounded at times like George W. Bush or Mitt Romney:
It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love. To fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American!
Who let the ghost of Ronald Reagan into the Democratic Convention hall?
But, there’s more:
I love our country with all my heart. … Let us show each other and the world who we are, and what we stand for. Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told!
I can vote for someone carrying that message instead of Donald Trump, who can’t shut up about what a garbage can he thinks America is? Yes, please.
And here’s where I speak directly to my fellow former and current Republicans who find themselves feeling politically homeless these days. We’re not just getting an alternative to voting for Trump. We’re getting an alternative who is articulating part of the core spirt of the party we once loved. Instead of the dictator-curious Trump, we can have this:
I will not cozy up to dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump. Who are ROOTING for Trump! … They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself. As President, I will never waver in defense of Americans’ security and ideals. Because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand, and I know where the United States belongs!
Her delivery and passion make the point real, even more so than those still powerful words. Throw in statements from Harris of support Ukraine and NATO and some tough talk on Iran and its proxies in the Middle East (all of which she *chose* to have in that speech), and:
Some of my friends on the right may protest that some of the policies a Kamala Harris administration will be distasteful to conservatives. Yes, some, of course. But are we willing to accept someone who loves America, loves democracy, and sounds a helluva lot more like a national security conservative than the current GOP nominee? I am.
(And that’s before we get to the brain dead, 18th century mercantilist view Trump has on tariffs, which he has turned into a core part of of his economic platform. Tariffs – aka taxes on all Americans who buy things – so obnoxious in their trade war potential they make the Great Depression-related Smoot-Hawley Tariff blush).
Donald Trump is unfit to serve in elected office, let alone in the Oval Office. Deep down inside we all know that.
We also have a debate between Trump and Harris under our belt. Remember that? As Jake Tapper said after, Trump’s performance was “like a 4chan post come to life” … from crazy internet rumors about pet eating migrants to lunacy about 2020 to defending January 6th, Trump was an angry, crazy old man. Harris articulated a pro-democracy, pro-Ukraine, and pro-NATO message while baiting the orange man into defending his crowd sizes and assorted internet conspiracies because Donald Trump is an emotional toddler.
In 2016, I took the easy path and voted 3rd party. In 2020, I chose a harder one, actively campaigning and voting for Joe Biden. In 2024, I want you to know, it’s ok to join me and Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and Joe Walsh and Dick Cheney and hundreds of alumni of working for George W. Bush and John McCain and Mitt Romney, and many more Republicans Against Trump who said “no”…and not only “no,” but yes to the alternative. Yes to Kamala Harris, because America is worth it.
Kamala cited that alumni group in the debate. That night proved our point. She’s the better choice.
If you’re still hesitating, I give you the courage of women.
Who has had the greatest moral clarity and courage as a conservative in opposing Donald Trump after the bullshit that led to January 6th? Liz Cheney.
This October 3rd, she joined Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Ripon, WI, the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854. The people that started what became the GOP did so over a cause of moral clarity: slavery. Fitting location for a call now for moral clarity as well.
I ask all of you here and everyone listening across this great country to join us. I ask you to meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump and I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for President.
Let me talk about three more women meeting this moment. Younger women. Women who worked for Donald Trump, in direct West Wing roles: Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House Director of Communications, Sarah Matthews, former White House Deputy Press Secretary, and Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Notably, all three worked in the White House on January 6th. They all joined Liz Cheney in Pennsylvania this October 10th with a clear message: we worked for Donald Trump in the White House, he’s unfit and we refuse to vote for him again.
Left to right: Liz Cheney, Cassidy Hutchinson, Sarah Matthews, Alyssa Farah Griffin. (Photo Credit: CNN)
More recently Liz Cheney campaigned with Kamala Harris on October 21st at events in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with what is ultimately a simple, clear message:
I say again to my friend’s on the right. It’s ok. The water is warm. Your conscience will thank you. I have seen a number of you take the step already this year. More of you are ready to. You don’t even have to say it out loud, you just have to vote. And years from now you’ll look back with honor rather than shame on this choice.
Join me in voting for Kamala Harris.
Eric Earling 