Arizona Republican Mayor John Giles endorses Harris for president | 2024 US Elections

John Giles, the Republican mayor of Arizona’s third-largest city and a former thorn in his party’s side for backing Democrats, has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris for president.

Giles, who has been mayor of Mesa, near Phoenix, since 2014, also rebuked Donald Trump in an op-ed published Monday in the Arizona Republic.

“Our party once stood for the belief that every Arizonan, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live their American dream,” Giles wrote.

“But since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to correct course,” he continued. “The Republican Party, with Trump at its helm, continues on a path of political extremism, to the detriment of our fundamental freedoms.”

Giles said that under Trump, cities have not received the federal support they needed compared to the infrastructure funding and CHIPS funding provided to cities under the Biden-Harris administration.

He also criticized Trump on foreign policy, saying the former president would threaten to leave NATO and damage the United States’ reputation abroad. He compared Harris’ leadership favorably to that of John McCain, the former U.S. senator.

In 2022, Giles was censured by the Arizona Republican Party for supporting Democrat Mark Kelly in his ultimately successful Senate bid. He has called himself a “Republican in the spirit of Ronald Reagan” and has said that the reason he sometimes supports candidates who do not threaten democracy is because he supports candidates who do not threaten democracy.

“There is no room for conservative people who are not extremists. And there are a lot of us,” he said in his 2022 endorsement of Kelly. “The only thing I fear more than my Republican Party losing this election is the prospect of this current slate of MAGA candidates winning and doing lasting damage to the party and the nation I love.”

A recent poll shows Trump leading Harris by five points in Arizona.

Other Republicans who have endorsed Harris include Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, and Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey.

“Vice President Harris is fighting to ensure that Americans can move forward and be free from gun violence and to restore and protect women’s rights. Donald Trump, on the other hand, could implement the extreme and dangerous agenda of Project 2025 if elected, which would roll back our rights and freedoms,” Giles added in his article.

“That’s why I stand with her. Kamala Harris is the competent, fair and just leader our country deserves. This year, the stakes are too high to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.”

Harris’ campaign says the vice president has also received support from Arizona border cities, including the mayors of Bisbee, Nogales, Somerton and San Luis, who were elected without party affiliation but represent Democratic-leaning areas.