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3 former Republican officials call on GOP voters to back Harris in Lancaster County

  • By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline
Attendees hold up Republicans for Harris signs during a Republicans for Harris event at The Barn at Stoner Commons on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.

 Logan Gehman / LNP | LancasterOnline

Attendees hold up Republicans for Harris signs during a Republicans for Harris event at The Barn at Stoner Commons on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.

Three former Republican officials from around the country met in Manheim Township on Tuesday afternoon to urge GOP voters to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day.

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock and former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh all said Harris’ Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, is too dangerous to give another term in office.

Mostly the trio criticized Trump’s baseless insistence that cases of mass voter fraud cost him the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.

Duncan told the crowd that Trump was “willing to lie, cheat and steal to overturn the 2020 election. We should never let anybody get away with it.”

Comstock said any Republicans on the fence about voting for Harris should consider that the next president would likely hold office with a divided Congress — or at least with a Senate and a House both falling at thin party majorities.

Harris, she said, could navigate that party turmoil to pass policies that both parties will support, like a “good immigration bill” and a child tax credit.


READ: AI enters politics: 3 Pa. House candidates used ChatGPT to shape voters guide responses


 

Of the more than 100 attendees at The Barn at Stoner Commons in Overlook Community Campus, many said they were registered Democrats and they needed no persuading to vote for Harris. The two registered GOP voters who spoke with LNP | LancasterOnline said they did not want to provide their names for publication.

The Harris campaign has sought to court Republican voters in areas that historically have favored GOP candidates, especially those who cast their primary ballots for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in April. Last month, Harris’ campaign opened an office in Ephrata, its second in Lancaster County.

Walsh called the race, in Pennsylvania especially, a “dead heat” and told the crowd to “get out there and proselytize” for the Harris campaign.

Tuesday’s event drew a small group of less than five Republicans who stood outside in protest.

The Harris campaign contracted a private security company with at least four guards in black suits and sunglasses who patrolled The Barn property. The managing guard declined to provide the company’s name or confirm whether his guards had firearms.

‘A vastly different party’

Pennsylvania co-chair of the Republicans for Harris campaign Ann Womble, who served as chair of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County from 2012 to 2014, said her group will hold weekly online meetings of independent and GOP voters interested in supporting Harris.

Womble said Trump, who she criticized for denying the 2020 election results, being convicted of 34 felony charges and being found liable for committing sexual abuse, has reshaped the landscape of her party.

“It’s become a vastly different party than the one I once knew — the one I joined when I was 18 years old,” Womble said. “It’s dark, it’s divisive, and it’s downright dangerous for me.”

County GOP chair Kirk Radanovic did not respond to a request for comment.

With just six weeks until Nov. 5, both candidates and their respective surrogates have spent plenty of time in Pennsylvania. That’s no surprise in a state that has seen its last two presidential election results decided by less than 100,000 votes.

Harris has held a slight lead over Trump in many Pennsylvania polls this month, including in the Franklin & Marshall College Poll. Many of those results have fallen with each dataset’s margin of error, indicating the race will likely come down to narrow margins.

Neither candidate has visited Lancaster County this year. Earlier this month Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stopped by the county Democrats’ headquarters. Next month, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, is slated to speak at the county GOP’s fall fundraiser.

On Monday, Trump hosted a rally in Indiana, Pa. Harris is expected to campaign in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

 

 

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