VP's campaign launches 'Republicans for Harris' in push to win over GOP voters put off by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign on Sunday is launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump's candidacy.

The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris' team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.

The Harris campaign shared the details of the program first with The Associated Press before the official announcement.

It is trying to create “a permission structure” for GOP voters who would otherwise have a difficult time voting for Harris. The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter contact, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice.

Trump's "extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values" and will vote against him again in November, said Harris' national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford. He said the campaign would be "showing up and taking the time every single day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own.”

Weatherford is a onetime chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who had endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Kinzinger is backing Harris once more as part of the launch.

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President," he said in a statement. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.”

Kinzinger developed a national profile as one of two Republicans on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee highlighted a number of Trump’s transgressions before and during the deadly attack as Congress tried to certify the results of the 2020 election that Biden won over Trump.

Trump has done little to try to win over moderate Republican voters and on Saturday criticized anew Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who rebuffed Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the battleground state.

Last month, when Biden was still at the top of the ticket, the campaign went out with an ad highlighting former Trump staffers' criticism of their onetime boss. A separate ad highlighted Trump’s often-personal attacks against Haley, including his primary nickname of her as “birdbrain” and suggestion that “she’s not presidential timber.”

Hundreds of thousands of registered Republicans voted in primaries for Haley even after she ended her bid for the 2024 Republican nomination and as Trump trounced her in almost every contest.

Haley in May announced she would vote for Trump and appeared at last month's Republican National Convention.

The Harris campaign's effort includes former Govs. Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and 16 former Republican members of Congress, including Kinzinger and Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois and Susan Molinari of New York. All have been notable critics of Trump in the past.

Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham is also endorsing Harris.

“I might not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know that she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage," Grisham said in a statement.

FILE - Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., speaks during a campaign event, Jan. 29, 2020, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Walsh, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

In this image from video, former Rep. Susan Molinari of N.Y., speaks from Sarasota, Fla., during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 17, 2020. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Molinari, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (Democratic National Convention via AP)

FILE- White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham listens as President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, Oct. 3, 2019. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Grisham, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaks at the White House in Washington, April 29, 2013. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including LaHood, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld speaks during a Town Hall, Feb. 5, 2020, in Concord, N.H. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Weld, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Christine Todd Whitman, right, the former Republican Governor of New Jersey, speaks, March 6, 2019, in Seattle. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Todd Whitman, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

FILE - Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is pictured in Washington, Nov. 11, 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Hagel, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks during a hearting at the Capitol in Washington, July 21, 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is launching "Republicans for Harris" as she tries to win over Republican voters put off by former President Donald Trump's candidacy. Harris' team says the program will aim to use well-known Republicans, including Kinzinger, to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the American Federation of Teachers' 88th national convention, July 25, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, file)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into orbit Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture farther than anyone since NASA's Apollo moonshots.

Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time around, which included developing and testing brand new spacesuits to see how they'll hold up in the harsh vacuum.

If all goes as planned, it will be the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk, but they won’t venture away from the capsule. Considered one of the most riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union popped open the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the U.S. Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.

Isaacman, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, launched before dawn aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. The spacewalk is scheduled for late Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.

But first the passengers are shooting for way beyond the International Space Station — an altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), which would surpass the Earth-lapping record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther.

The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height — filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris — before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half. Even at this lower 435 miles (700 kilometers), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.

All four wore SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.

Isaacman and SpaceX's Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly popping out of the hatch. They’ll test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies. Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only NASA’s suits at the space station come equipped with jetpacks, for emergency use only.

Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.

“We’re sending you hugs from the ground," Launch Control radioed after the crew reached orbit. “May you make history and come home safely.”

Isaacman replied: “We wouldn’t be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX."

At a preflight news conference, Isaacman — CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4 — refused to say how much he invested in the flight. “Not a chance,” he said.

SpaceX teamed up with Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for NASA.

“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” Gerstenmaier said.

It’s the first of three trips that Isaacman bought from Elon Musk 2 1/2 years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now. Training was extensive; Poteet said it rivaled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.

As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Gillis and Menon helped Isaacman and his previous team — as well as NASA’s professional crews — prepare for their rides.

“I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our solar system," the 41-year-old Isaacman said before liftoff.

Poor weather caused a two-week delay. The crew needed favorable forecasts not only for launch, but for splashdown days later. With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This image made from a SpaceX video shows the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Tuesday Sept. 10, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)