Former GOP rep endorses Harris, says Trump 'would endanger US citizens'
Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president on Sunday and warned sending former President Trump back to the White House “would endanger U.S. citizens — and create global chaos.”
Riggleman’s name was among the high-profile list of endorsements that the Harris campaign revealed alongside its launch of the “Republicans for Harris” initiative.
“I’m on here. Yep,” Riggleman said on the social platform X in a post that included the “Republicans for Harris" press release.
Riggleman pointed to the events of Jan. 6, 2021 — when a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol — to explain his reasoning behind the endorsement. Riggleman was endorsed by Trump in two separate campaigns, but he broke with the former president on Jan. 6.
“I’ve seen the data from J6. Trump & his minions are dangerous. The same folks who pushed J6 push Project 2025,” Riggleman said. “A 2nd Trump term would endanger US citizens — and create global chaos.”
“Sanity should be the baseline. Criminals should be discounted,” he added, before tagging the Republicans for Harris X account.
Harris’s campaign launched the initiative with more than 25 endorsements from high-profile Republicans, including former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and other GOP lawmakers and governors.
Trump-era White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye, ex-national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, also endorsed Harris.
Former Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) were also listed among the endorsements.
Republicans for Harris will focus on activating GOP voices “to speak to their friends and family about the importance of voting for the Vice President,” according to the campaign, which described the group as a “campaign within a campaign.” The group will have kickoff events Monday in battleground states Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“Donald Trump’s MAGA 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,” Austin Weatherford, Harris’s national director for Republican outreach, said in a statement.