GOP former U.S. Rep. Fred Upton endorses Harris

Former U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) — who represented his Southwest Michigan district for 36 years in Congress — on Thursday publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her race against former President Donald Trump for the White House.

“I don’t believe l’ve missed a vote in Michigan in the 52 years I’ve been eligible to vote. And I’ve not been afraid to split my ballot from time to time but have never voted for a Democrat for president, until now,” said Upton. “It is often said that, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ And, let’s face it-the whole world seems on fire today.”

Upton, a former GOP vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, noted that he now joins more than 30 former GOP members of Congress who have publicly stated that they will vote for Harris.

Republican former US Rep. Joe Schwarz throws support behind Kamala Harris

“I am proud to add my name to that list, as I have already cast my ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris to be our next president of the United States,” he said.

Last year, Upton was leading the effort to get the No Labels party on the Michigan ballot. As a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, No Labels promotes centrist policies and was founded in 2009 by Democratic operative Nancy Jacobson. It was also instrumental in creating the Problem Solvers Caucus in 2017.

“Seventy percent or so of the American public doesn’t want a rematch of [President Joe] Biden and Trump,” Upton told the Michigan Advance in a June 2023 interview. “We’ve done some pretty extensive polling, tens of thousands of people, and we actually think that there is a pathway to get 270 electoral votes to not be a spoiler like Ross Perot in 1992, but our polling actually shows that we take equally from both sides who are really not happy with the likelihood of a Biden/Trump rematch.”

The No Labels effort folded after failing to recruit a presidential candidate. Biden dropped out of the race in July and endorsed Harris, shaking up the election.

Upton’s endorsement of Harris follows that of other high-profile former Republican members of Congress, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, as well as Dave Trott and Joe Schwarz of Michigan.

Upton is the only person in American history to vote to impeach two presidents, voting for the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 and then in 2021 for the second impeachment of Trump, one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt and attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“I was present in the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and witnessed first-hand the violence trying to co-opt the legitimate counting of each state’s electoral votes. I spent time with the brave Capitol Police doing their very best to protect and defend the Constitution that awful day. That day was a tragedy for our democracy and Donald Trump is wrong to claim that everything he did was ‘totally appropriate’ when he directly jeopardized the peaceful transition from one administration to the next. He is unfit to serve as commander in chief again,” said Upton.

In addition to former Republican members of Congress who have endorsed Harris, over 100 GOP former national security officials have spoken out against another Trump term in the White House.

“Time and time again respected senior national Republicans have urged our former president to focus on governing rather than personal attacks, mistruths, and continued false 2020 election claims,” said Upton. “Instead of heeding that advice, we see unhinged behavior not acceptable in most forums almost daily.”

Most recently, retired four star U.S. Marine General John Kelly, who was Trump’s longest serving chief of staff, told the New York Times that if reelected, the former president would rule as an authoritarian and met the definition of a fascist.