Hundreds of Republicans who worked for former President George W. Bush have united to form a political action committee to help Democratic candidate Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump in November.
Karen Kirksey, director of the 43 Alumni for Biden super PAC and former USDA official under Bush, said the Republican Party had ”morphed into a cult of personality that little resembles the Party of Lincoln and Reagan.”
In a news release, she said that the new super PAC was working to elect Biden because of “the urgent need to restore the soul of this nation.”
The super PAC will include senior aides and former cabinet secretaries, Reuters reported, but it hasn’t released the names of all its members or donors yet. An “about” page on its website lists officials who worked in the White House, Treasury, Education and Energy departments, the EPA and on the Bush political campaigns.
Since the organization filed on July 1, it will not have to make its list of donors public until October, NPR reported.
“We believe that a Biden administration will adhere to the rule of law, ensure equal protection for all Americans and restore dignity and integrity to the White House,” organizing committee member Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House and on both election campaigns, said in a statement. “This November, we are choosing country over party.”
The organization joins a growing number of conservative groups working against Trump, including The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump. These groups have made waves by creating videos that attack Trump. However, 43 Alumni for Biden plans to take a different approach, opting for a pro-Biden message rather than an anti-Trump one.
“We just want to focus on the positives, and the positive message to us is we need a gentleman who actually acts like a leader and, again, restores dignity,” committee member Jennifer Millikin, who served in the General Services Administration under Bush, told The Hill. She also said that some of the names of the group’s high-profile members will be made public in the coming weeks.
The 43 Alumni for Biden group is calling on other Republicans to join, saying they don’t have to endorse the Democratic platform to help.
“This campaign is bigger than partisan politics,” the organization said. “We recognize that there may be policy differences among us, but we look forward to a time when civil, honest and robust policy discussions are the order of the day.”
While the group will include hundreds of former Bush officials, aides and others from the administration, the former president himself will not be involved. Last month, The New York Times reported that Bush does not plan to vote for Trump. A Bush spokesperson later called the report “completely made up,” but stopped short of contradicting it.
“He is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote,” Freddy Ford told the Texas Tribune.
Bush did not vote for Trump in 2016.
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