Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney shows the effort to win over anti-Trump Republicans

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the most vociferous anti-Trump Republicans in the last Congress, is campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in a Wisconsin town widely known as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

Cheney, who endorsed the Democrat for president last month, will join Harris’ rally in Ripon, where the meeting that led to the establishment of the Republican Party took place. (Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has also endorsed Harris.)

The Wyoming Republican’s appearance with Harris is notable — especially given the deep political divisions in the country — but not surprising. Cheney has been a fierce critic of Donald Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 riots, and she stoked both his ire and that of his allies with her involvement in the congressional investigation of the attack on the Capitol.

Meanwhile, Harris is making a huge effort to win over disaffected Republicans, in part to demonstrate the Democrats’ big tent. Several prominent Republicans had speaking slots at the Democratic National Convention in August, and Harris has said she is willing to appoint a Republican to her cabinet if she’s elected. On Thursday, NBC News reported that her campaign is releasing two ads in battleground states aimed at Republican voters and former Trump supporters.

Wisconsin is a must-win state for Harris, and holding the event in Ripon has symbolic significance. One of the major arguments made by anti-Trump Republicans against the current GOP nominee is that he has rendered the party unrecognizable from its traditional values. In a town with such historical connection to the Republican Party, Cheney will once again make the case to voters that, party aside, it is simply too dangerous to elect Trump to the White House again.