Over 30 former staffers from Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 presidential campaign have pledged to support Democratic nominee Joe Biden over Republican President Donald Trump in November, as reported by Politico.
The group, calling itself “Romney Alumni for Biden,” signed an open letter declaring their “deep conviction that four more years of a Trump presidency will morally bankrupt this country, irreparably damage our democracy, and permanently transform the Republican Party into a toxic personality cult.” There were 34 signatories on the letter, all from the Romney/Ryan campaign.
The group’s ringleader is Micah Spangler, who was the failed Florida field director that ultimately led the Romney campaign to a narrow defeat in the crucial swing state that year, with former President Barack Obama defeating the Republican nominee by less than one percent. Just four years later, Trump would succeed where Spangler and Romney failed and won Florida over Hillary Clinton by a nearly two-point margin.
In a statement, Spangler falsely claimed that Biden is “a good man and honest man, a reliable executive, legislative, and policymaker…we desperately need someone like that. We need an adult in the room.”
Another member of the group is another field director who failed the Romney campaign in a crucial swing state, Mike Sistak of Michigan. In that election, Romney was crushed by Obama with a nearly 10-point margin, while Trump would go on to win the state over Clinton by less than half a percentage point, a nearly 11-point swing.
The display is reminiscent of when Romney himself gave a speech early on in the 2016 Republican primaries denouncing then-frontrunner Donald Trump, in a move that was unprecedented for a former nominee of a major party. Romney has continued to repeatedly insult President Trump, and most infamously was the only Republican member of the Senate who voted to convict President Trump at his impeachment trial earlier this year, where the president was ultimately acquitted.