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Republican Arizona Mayor endorses Kamala Harris for President
Giles, who has been previously censored for endorsing democratic candidates, has refused to leave the Republican party
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Mayor John Giles / ImageCourtesy:mesaaz.gov
John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa City, Arizona’s third-largest city crossed party lines and endorsed Kamala Harris, current Vice President, and the presumptive Democratic nominee, for President of the United States.
“The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms,” he wrote in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic.
Giles, who has been previously censored for endorsing democratic candidates, has refused to leave the Republican party as he believes there is room for course correction in the party. “I believe my party has a moral and ethical responsibility to restore faith in our democratic institutions,” he said.
Calling on other Arizona Republicans to join him in defeating Trump, Giles asserted, “Now more than ever, we need leaders who will put country over party.”
“That’s why I’m standing with her. Kamala Harris is the competent, just, and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket," the mayor wrote.
Arizona ‘fake electors’ case
Giles’ endorsement of Harris comes from the frustration of seeing his state turned into a battleground following Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
"The Grand Canyon State is ground zero in the fight against repeated false claims to disrupt our electoral process − from fake presidential electors attempting to undermine Arizona’s election, to a sham” audit” by Arizona Senate Republicans that was spurred by conspiracy theories," Giles wrote in the op-ed.
In 2020, the Republican-held state Senate audited the election results and nearly one-third of the Arizona State House denied the results. The court battle that ensued between the Arizona Republic, the Senate, and Cyber Ninjas, the firm tasked with conducting the audit, lasted two years.
A total of 18 people, including 11 Arizona Republicans and seven top aides to Donald Trump were indicted by a state grand jury for participating in a scheme to certify that Donald Trump won the state in 2020 falsely.
Biden and Harris won the state by less than 10,500 votes and won in Maricopa County, where Mesa is located, by just over 45,000 in 2020.
In the election of 2024, this endorsement by Mayor Giles in a battleground state could prove critical for the Harris campaign. Mesa was named the most conservative city, with a population of over 250,000, according to Pew Research in 2017.
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