ATLANTA — In a presidential rematch where every vote could count, the campaigns of President Biden and former President Trump are courting key constituencies to gain an advantage in what could ultimately be a close election.
The Biden campaign, seeking to win over a small but potentially significant constituency of moderate Republicans unhappy with Trump as the party’s standard-bearer, announced an endorsement from former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on the eve of the first presidential debate.
The former military pilot and Iraq War veteran has turned into a leading Republican critic of Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. In a video announcing his support on Wednesday, he denounced the former president as a “direct threat to all fundamental American values.”
“If you would have told me three years ago, ‘In three years, you’ll be supporting a Democrat for president,’ I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” Kinzinger said a few hours later, standing at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.
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Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, center, speaks during a Biden campaign news conference in Atlanta on June 26, 2024. He is joined, from left, by former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Georgia Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
“But I have to say the risks at this moment are just too great,” Kinzinger added.
Former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, another vocal Republican critic of Trump, joined Kinzinger at the news conference, along with Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer who secured the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Georgia Senate Democratic Leader Gloria Butler.
“As a Republican, it’s not easy to go against the flow and support Democrat Joe Biden for president, but I don’t view this election through the lens of being a Republican,” Duncan explained. “I view it through the lens of being an American, an American who cares more about the future of their country than they do about the American people. [morally] A bankrupt candidate of my party.”
Kinzinger’s endorsement and press conference came on the same day that the Biden campaign launched new ads in key battleground states condemning Trump’s actions during the attack on the U.S. Capitol three and a half years ago.
In the ad, which first aired on Fox News on Wednesday, Sheriff Chris Swanson of Genesee County, Michigan, describes how he watched in horror as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and attacked Capitol Police officers.
“As a sheriff, it’s terrible to see an officer attacked. This does not support the badge and the uniform. I have no desire to work with people who are divisive. That’s not what America is,” Swanson stressed.
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The ad, the endorsement and the press conference are all part of an effort by the Biden campaign to attack Biden, who is set to become the Republican presidential nominee, for what it calls “Donald Trump’s attack on American democracy.”
Biden has long made what he calls Trump’s threat to democracy a central issue of his presidency, emphasizing it as he seeks a second term in the White House. It’s highly likely that Biden will put the issue in the spotlight in the first presidential debate between the two major party standard-bearers on Thursday.
It’s a pitch that could help the Biden campaign persuade some Republicans who supported former ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary to consider voting Democratic this fall.
Former Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger spoke to Fox News in an interview after attending a Biden campaign news conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on June 26, 2024. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
“There’s still a group of Republicans who don’t feel comfortable being with Donald Trump. They feel like they can’t imagine voting for a Democrat. So they’re trying to sit back and think about it here,” Kinzinger said. “This is an important time for Republicans to come forward and say it’s OK. You don’t have to abandon who you are as a Republican to vote for a Democrat. All you’re standing for is democracy.”
When asked by Fox News whether the Biden campaign was doing enough to win over Republican voters, Kinzinger said, “I think the campaign has been very clear, particularly in the last few months, that they want to win over Haley’s supporters, the swing Republican vote.”
Trump’s black surrogate defends former president
Kinzinger will be the most prominent former Republican elected official to formally endorse Biden, after the Biden campaign earlier this month named Kinzinger’s former chief of staff, Austin Weatherford, as national communications director for the Republican Party.
The Trump campaign targeted Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans on the Democratic-dominated House committee investigating the Capitol attack.
Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chang asked on social media: “Who is Adam Kinzinger? Isn’t he a crybaby?”
Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt (Texas, third from left), Rep. Byron Donald (Fla., third from left), and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson (second from right) attend the Trump campaign’s Black Business Roundtable in Atlanta on June 26, 2024. (Fox News/Matthew Reidy)
While the Biden campaign was holding a press conference at the Georgia Capitol, the Trump campaign was appealing to black voters at an event just a few miles away.
The Trump campaign organized a forum in Midtown Atlanta called the “Black American Business Leaders Barbershop Roundtable.”
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Leading the discussion were two of President Trump’s most prominent black allies and surrogates, Republican Reps. Byron Donald of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, and Dr. Ben Carson, the 2016 Republican presidential nominee who later served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump Administration.
Both Carson and Donald are widely considered to be on Trump’s shortlist as potential running mates for vice president.
Republican Rep. Byron Donald of Florida, left, and Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, right, headlined a Black voter awareness event titled “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” on June 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Late Wednesday, 24 hours before the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Hunt and Donald were scheduled to host the second of their “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” events in several key battleground states as part of Republican outreach to black male voters.
Polls this year have shown that Biden maintains outsized support among black voters, while Trump is growing support among key voters who have been a big part of the Democratic base for generations.
Get the latest 2024 election campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
