John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, sent a short, pointed message to moderates and Republicans on Tuesday night, urging them to join him in supporting Vice President Kamala Harris over their own party’s candidate.
“I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican Party,” said Giles, who represents a city of 500,000 people east of Phoenix. “Let’s give adults the space our country deserves.”
Giles’ presence and prime-time speaking time at the convention were a sign of how Democrats are trying to sway independents and convert conservatives opposed to Donald Trump in order to keep the White House. Harris has reinvigorated the Democratic base, but polls have shown that some voters see her as more liberal than President Joe Biden and too liberal for them.
Giles, the rare Republican mayor of a big city, will try to help her address those concerns. He is the most prominent Republican to support her in Arizona, a key swing state and longtime conservative bastion that has trended Democratic in recent elections.
Last month, he wrote an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic endorsing Harris, positioning himself as a member of the moderate wing of the Arizona Republican Party, modeled on John McCain, the longtime senator who died in 2018. His style is something of an anomaly in today’s state party, which has moved sharply to the right. After the publication, he launched a media offensive, speaking at Harris’ campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona.
“I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political center,” Giles said at the party convention on Tuesday. “John McCain’s Republican Party is no more, and you owe absolutely nothing to what is left behind.”
Giles, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could also appeal to Mormon voters who helped Biden win Arizona in 2020. And he could prove to be a key ambassador on immigration, a top priority in Arizona, where Republicans see a particular vulnerability for Harris.
“Immigration is not an issue here. It is The “That’s an issue here,” he said in an interview last month, stressing that Harris must remind voters that Trump killed a bipartisan bill that would have increased border security. “The other side has done a good job of demonizing her on this issue, unfairly, I would say.”
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
