vision 2020

Joe Biden Gets the Coveted Jeff Flake Endorsement

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

With the Republican National Convention set to get underway on Monday evening, Joe Biden’s campaign released a long list of Republican former lawmakers who are endorsing him for president, pressing a case it made last week at the Democratic National Convention, where several Republican officials came out in support of his campaign.

The new list includes three former Republican senators, including Arizona’s Jeff Flake, who retired in 2018 and has made his displeasure with President Trump clear many times, as well as more than 20 former representatives. Among them is Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent, another frequent Trump critic who called it quits the same year, and had already announced his support for Biden.

None of the names on Monday’s list are associated with the dominant, Trump-friendly wing of the party. And it’s unclear how many Americans are dying to hear what the likes of Flake — who was often lambasted from the right for being too critical of Trump and from the left for being too subservient to him — have to say right now.

But the Biden team clearly believes there is a target market for GOP apostates. At last week’s Democratic convention, it repeatedly highlighted voters — from former elected officials like ex-Ohio governor John Kasich to average Joes and Janes — who were breaking from their party to support Biden.

Joe Biden Gets the Coveted Jeff Flake Endorsement