The 48-year-old from Owatonna is an Iraq war veteran who organized Tea Party rallies in Steele County a decade ago. A warehouse manager in Faribault, he went on to stints as chairman of Republican Party units at the congressional and county level.
Now Thul finds himself in the unlikely position of rooting for Joe Biden to win the presidential election. “I think the country has a less worse outcome” if the Democratic former vice president wins, he said.
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“My goal and my best case scenario is that Donald Trump doesn’t just lose this election, Donald Trump needs to be repudiated thoroughly in this election,” said Sarah Longwell, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative strategist whose “Republican Voters Against Trump” initiative is mounting a $10 million nationwide advertising campaign built around videos of 2016 Trump voters explaining why they won’t back him again.
“We found it’s more convincing to those who are on the fence about Trump to hear from people like themselves than it is to hear from a bunch of Republican elites,” Longwell said.
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“Number one, he’s not competent. He’s not running a competent government,” said Ken Cobb, a Bemidji insurance agent who was the Beltrami County Republican chairman until spring 2016. “Number two, he’s not a principled conservative. Number three, he’s not a person of character.”
Andy Brehm, who was communications director for former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, said Trump “hasn’t grown in office in any respect.” Luke Hellier, a Lakeville City Council member and a GOP strategist, said that “the country needs a unifying figure right now and President Trump is not that.”
Best in Moderation
Article URL : https://www.startribune.com/never-trump-small-but-vocal-group-inside-gop-rooting-for-biden/571412482/