US election campaign: "Trump is unacceptable" - Republicans campaign for Harris

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger US election campaign: "Trump is unacceptable" - Republicans campaign for Harris 5 hours • 5 minutes reading time Standing in line in the blazing sun at 37 degrees means sweating. Helpers hand out water and umbrellas to provide shade. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long for the approximately 150 supporters of the Democratic US presidential candidate Kamala Harris to find a seat in the event room of a chic golf club in Scottsdale. The exclusive event in the state of Arizona is not a standard election campaign event for Harris. Here the Democrat meets conservatives, many of them Republicans, who support her. The reason: the Republican Donald Trump is too extreme for them. Support for Harris from the conservative camp Arizona in the southwest of the USA is particularly contested in the election - in the swing state, every vote counts. Trump won here in 2016, and in 2020 the current US President Joe Biden won the state by a very narrow margin. Harris and her Republican rival Trump are roughly neck and neck in polls for the November 5 election in Arizona, with Trump having a slight margin of error on average. According to a recent nationwide survey, the 59-year-old Democrat has recently gained support among Republicans. While three percent of Democratic supporters surveyed would vote for Trump, nine percent of Republicans surveyed said they would vote for Harris. A month earlier, the figure was only five percent. Trump is scaring off some supporters in his own party with his harsh rhetoric and radical positions - a prominent example is Liz Cheney, who was ousted from the party leadership. But it remains to be seen whether conservative Trump opponents can tip the scales in Harris' favor. In any case, Harris is fighting for every vote - because the race couldn't be closer. "Country over party" The US Vice President is given a euphoric welcome at the golf club in Scottsdale near Phoenix. "Kamala, Kamala, Kamala," the audience calls out. The motto is "Country over Party". Harris woos conservatives: "Each of you had the courage to say: Hey, we may not agree on everything." But certain principles should not be questioned. Harris speaks with admiration about Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona, who died in 2018. In his final years, he had become a kind of intimate enemy of Trump. Harris warns that the USA will no longer be taken seriously in the world under Trump. But a strong America is needed. Applause. Harris has the audience on her side. The Democrat takes a lot of time for photos at the end of her short speech. The audience is white and seems rather wealthy. An older woman says that she does not make her support for Harris public among her circle of friends. The atmosphere is simply too charged. What drives Republicans to Harris? Three apostates from Arizona report - they know each other from the church and about their commitment against Trump: Amy Wudel: The conservative Wudel does not want to vote for Trump. "I have been a conservative Republican my entire voting life. I never thought that I would not vote for the Republicans," says the Mormon. That changed in 2016, when Trump ran for the Republicans for the first time - and won the presidential election. "He was completely unsuitable and unacceptable." During the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, "the worst nightmares" came true, says Wudel. Trump is not only a danger to democracy, but to the entire world, because he allows himself to be led by dictators. Jane Andersen: For Andersen, Trump is not a suitable leader. "I will vote for Harris, and I am still a registered Republican," says the late 40-year-old, who is involved in various conservative initiatives. Ultimately, she also listens carefully to religious leaders when making decisions. They tell her that important criteria for a president are integrity, compassion and service to others - a leader must be unifying. "I don't see that in Trump, and that's why I definitely won't vote for him." The Republicans have distanced themselves from her. But she won't let herself be chased out of the party, even if she sometimes feels anger. Clint Smith: Smith criticizes the Republican leadership. The turning point for Smith was the storming of the Capitol. "I am a conservative at heart," says the lawyer, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2022 as an independent. "The entire Republican leadership simply jumped on the bandwagon even though they knew better," he says of the period after January 6. The leadership let the party down.