Robert Nix, a 62-year-old lawyer from Philadelphia, was a lifelong Republican before Donald Trump came to office. He’s voted red in every election since he turned 18, and things were no different in 2016 when he voted for the GOP candidate.
But Nix quickly felt he had made a mistake. He was bothered by Trump’s boisterous comments and attacks on freedom of the press. By the time the next election rolled around in 2020, Nix put aside his ideological differences with President Joe Biden and voted Democrat for the first time in his life.
“I wasn't happy about it, but I didn't see any choice,” Nix said in an interview with Salon. This year, he’s encouraging others to do the same.
Nix is one of hundreds of Republicans sharing their experience in the hopes it will resonate with center-right voters in swing states like Pennsylvania. He is part of Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), a $3.5 million ad campaign started by Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy organization for conservatives "dedicated to defending America’s democratic norms, values, and institutions." In 2020, the same group launched a similar project, dubbed Republican Accountability, to share testimonials from conservative voters on their decision not to vote for Trump and encourage others to vote blue.
This year's campaign has the same objective: to use personal stories to reach center-right voters in battleground states who are concerned about Trump but hesitant to vote Democratic for the first time.
“The campaign is a community of these voters who feel politically homeless, who need a new home, who want to reject Donald Trump, but don't necessarily identify as Democrats,” John Conway, RVAT's director of strategy, said in an interview with Salon.
RVAT’s website has over 300 recorded testimonies from former-Trump voters who are voting Democrat this time around. Voters share the dangers of a second Trump term and encourage other conservatives to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Many of the testimonies, including Nix’s, are also on billboards and streaming service ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Kyle Sweetser, a 35-year-old construction worker and father of two from Mobile, Ala., voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. As a small business owner in the South, Sweetser liked that Trump was "business minded" and thought he would bring a fresh perspective to the Oval Office.
When Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018, Sweetser directly felt the effects on his construction business and started to question Trump's economic policy. He still voted Republican in 2020, but did so reluctantly. After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, however, Sweetser lost all faith in the former president.
Trump winning the Republican primary earlier this year "shook" Sweetser "to the core," he said. He decided he would vote Democrat for the first time in his life this fall.
Like Nix, Sweetser started speaking out against Trump, mostly criticizing his views on the economy and approach to foreign policy. With his children's futures in mind, he even spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August.
"I really started to really look at Trump's record under a microscope and realize how wrong he was, you know, on foreign policy, on trade, on the economy," he said in an interview with Salon. "I've never really been somebody that goes online and talks about things, but I felt like it was the right thing to do."
While much of Sweetser's decision to vote Democrat is about policy, for Nix this year’s election transcends issues of the economy, foreign affairs or immigration. This election is about preventing a “narcissistic” authoritarian from entering office, he said.
“We can overcome bad policy. We can't overcome if one of our political parties becomes a movement that is no longer part of democracy, that takes us over the edge,” Nix said. “We can't come back from that.”
Nix was one of 156,000 Republican voters who voted for Nikki Haley in Pennsylvania's Republican primary election in April, netting her over 16% in a presidential race that she had already dropped out of a month before. The former UN ambassador, who has since endorsed Trump, also received 20% of the primary vote in Maryland, 21.7% in Indiana and 17.9% in Nebraska.
The support for Haley, despite her no longer being a candidate, suggests there are many Republicans out there with qualms about the direction of their party, Nix said.
"Those people that voted for Haley after she dropped out as purely a protest vote against Trump, those are the ones that have to be reached as carefully as possible," Nix said.
Harris is trying to do just that, making a deliberate effort to reach moderate Republicans, particularly Haley supporters. In August, her team launched, "Republicans for Harris," a campaign that aims to create a "permission structure" for GOP voters to vote Democrat. The campaign has hosted events in Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, with a focus on "Republican-to-Republican voter contact."
Household Republicans are supporting the movement too. Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has said she will vote for Harris in November because of the "danger Donald Trump poses."
“It is crucially important for people to recognize — not only is what I’ve just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said at a Duke University event. Her father followed suit.
In August, more than 230 former GOP staffers who worked for George Bush presidents, as well as the late Sen. John McCain released a letter endorsing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. McCain's son Jimmy recently announced he too is voting for Harris.
The GOP alumni stated their support for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, despite “ideological differences” because voting for Trump would be “untenable.”
“At home, another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership, this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions,” the letter reads.
But despite the high-profile endorsements, recent polling shows that Trump still is perceived as more moderate than he is in reality. According to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, just 32% of voters said Trump was too conservative, whereas 47% of voters said Harris was too liberal.
Five percent of registered GOP voters said they would vote for Harris if the election were held today, according to the same poll.
Convincing lifelong Republicans to jump ship isn’t easy. Conway said “tribal instinct is strong” among Republican voters and it may be hard for some to stray from the pack. Indeed, since Nix began sharing his experience and campaigning against Trump, he’s felt incredibly isolated within the Republican movement. He’s been cut off by friends, removed from email lists, and excluded from right-wing circles, he said.
“Each day I wake up and think, 'I can't possibly be more depressed, disgusted and horrified,' and each day I’m surprised to find I am,” he said.
Sweetser too has had isolating and even dangerous experiences. His home address was released online and seen by over 100,000 people. His wife received via text message from an anonymous number.
"It is what it is, you know? The more threats, the more I feel that it's important to continue to speak out," Sweetser said.
It’s a common experience, Conway said. Their target voters are in Republican families and Republican communities where they may be the only person deeply concerned about Trump. Hearing stories like Nix’s can show someone they’re not alone,
“That's what makes these testimonials so powerful: establishing permission structures for other voters to reject Donald Trump's extremism,” Conway said.
