UPDATED 8/9/2016.
A strategist who once advised the GOP on how to attract more voters has left the Republican Party.
“This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties. Donald Trump cannot be elected president,” Former Jeb Bush aide Sally Bradshaw told CNN.
Bradshaw was a part of the team that authored the RNC’s 2013 “autopsy report,” which, among numerous policy recommendations, asked Republican leaders to begin making inroads with Latinos by drastically changing their tone and embracing comprehensive immigration reform.
Republicans, however, nominated a man who has proposed mass deportation of all 11 million undocumented immigrants from the country, a massive wall along the US/Mexico border, and has called immigrants from Mexico criminals and “rapists.”
“This election cycle is a test,” Bradshaw told CNN. “As much as I don’t want another four years of Obama’s policies, I can’t look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump. I can’t tell them to love their neighbor and treat others the way they wanted to be treated, and then vote for Donald Trump. I won’t do it.”
Bradshaw noted that Trump’s cowardly attacks on a Gold Star family aided in her decision — unlike Republican leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell — to put country over party.
“Donald Trump belittled a woman who gave birth to a son who died fighting for the United States. If anything, that reinforced my decision to become an independent voter.”
“Every family who loses a loved one in service to our country or who has a family member who serves in the military should be honored, regardless of their political views. Vets and their family have more than earned the right to those views.”
“Someone with the temperament to be president would understand and respect that.”
Bradshaw, a Florida resident, has indicated that she may be open to voting for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Bradshaw joins other high-profile Republican operatives to quit or dissociate themselves from the party over Donald Trump’s racism and bigotry, including Ruth Guerra, who quit as head of Latino media relations for the RNC.
“Guerra, who grew up in Texas and is of Mexican descent, grew increasingly exhausted with having to defend The Donald on TV and in public appearances, especially as he continues to attack Hispanics.”
Earlier this month, Chris Christie’s longest-serving cabinet member announced she will be voting for Hillary Clinton in November, telling CNN that “silence isn’t an option” when it comes to Donald Trump.
“Instead of speaking out against instances of bigotry, racism and inflammatory rhetoric whether it’s been against women, immigrants or Muslims, we made a calculus that it was better to say nothing at all in the interest of politics and winning elections.”
“For me, if our party has a future, we have to change that trajectory and lead by example,” Maria Comella said.
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton in November and I’m voting for her because I don’t believe it’s enough to say you aren’t for Donald Trump. My mom and dad were Republicans, but they didn’t always vote Republican. There are times when principle trumps (no pun intended) party and we have to be okay with acknowledging that.”
“I can certainly complain that the choices aren’t great and I wish there were better options. But there aren’t. So I can either exist in the real world and make a decision based on my actual choices or pretend I am in a fantasy. I chose the real world and I would encourage other Republicans to do the same.”
And today, Wadi Gaitan, a former senior House Republican aide who focused on Hispanic affairs for the Florida Republican Party, became yet another high-profile Latino Republican official to leave his job “because he can no longer tolerate defending and explaining Trump.”
