”Whisper Caucus” of Republicans May Secretly Support Kamala Harris, Says Former Georgia Lt. Governor
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A Republican former statewide elected official from a key swing state believes there’s a quiet movement within the GOP that could be a decisive factor in the upcoming November election. According to former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, some Republicans may be saying they support former President Donald Trump in public but could privately cast their votes for Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a recent interview with NBC News, Duncan—who has endorsed Harris—explained the role of “peer pressure” in politics, particularly within the Republican Party. He suggested that many Republicans are reluctant to openly support Harris due to pressure from their peers but may choose differently in the privacy of the voting booth.
“It’s a real thing, and so a lot of Republicans don’t want to publicly state [support for Harris], and that’s what I think is leading to the tightness of the polls that we see,” Duncan said. “I think there’s a whisper caucus that’s going to do something different [at the polls] than they’re signaling.”
Harris, campaigning hard as the election nears, has been working to court disaffected Republicans. She recently appeared alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) in Ripon, Wisconsin, a symbolic location known as the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854. While Cheney’s support for Harris has garnered attention, Duncan acknowledged that convincing Republicans to openly back Harris remains a difficult task.
“When they’re in private, it seems like an easy task,” Duncan noted. “When they’re in a public setting, it doesn’t seem like an easy task.”
According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, Harris has gained the support of 9% of Republicans—a notable increase from the 6% support that President Joe Biden garnered in 2020. Biden’s narrow victory in critical battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin was achieved by a margin of less than 50,000 combined votes, meaning even slight shifts in Republican support could prove crucial in the upcoming election.
However, Trump’s campaign is dismissing any concerns about Republicans defecting to Harris. The Trump team claims that any potential loss of GOP voters is offset by gains Trump is making among right-leaning Democrats and independents. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, argued that while Harris is struggling to hold her base together, Trump is gaining momentum with new voters.
“Kamala is spending more time trying to cobble together her own base than reach independent voters,” Leavitt said. “President Trump is on full-blown offense, polling better than he ever has, leading in the battlegrounds, and picking up historic gains with new voters.”
As the 2024 campaign enters its final two weeks, uncertainty remains high. The race in the seven battleground states that will likely decide the election is within the margin of error, and both candidates are pushing hard in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania. According to The Wall Street Journal, winning both states would likely make either Harris or Trump the “overwhelming favorite” to win the presidency.
With polls tightening and whispers of Republican defections, the last days of the campaign are expected to be fiercely competitive, with both sides battling for every possible vote.
