Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary under the Trump administration, will speak at the Democratic National Convention to show her support for Vice President Kamala Harris this week. And she’s encouraging other Republicans to join her to “ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.”
“I never thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic convention,” Grisham said in a statement. “But, after seeing firsthand who Donald Trump really is, and the threat he poses to our country, I feel very strongly about speaking out.”
Grisham, who worked in a number of different roles at the Trump White House before resigning in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said while she doesn’t agree with Harris across the board, she is “proud to be supporting her” presidential bid. She said that Harris will “defend our freedoms and represent our nation with honesty and integrity.” NBC News first reported the development.
The former press secretary won’t be alone at the convention this week. Another former Trump official, former national security advisor Olivia Troye is also set to speak in the coming days, a Harris campaign official told CBS News. Delegates will also hear from John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger — all of whom are Republicans.
Kinzinger said Tuesday that he would be speaking on Thursday.
At the first night of the convention, the DNC featured testimonials from Republicans who say they previously voted for Trump but now plan to support Harris. Austin Weatherford, the Harris-Walz campaign’s Republican engagement director, said the programming “is just the latest effort by our campaign to reach out to anti-Trump Republicans,” adding in a statement that the campaign will “continue reminding Republican and independent voters that Donald Trump doesn’t represent their values.”
The Harris-Walz campaign launched the outreach to Republicans who may be disenchanted with Trump earlier this month, after President Biden stepped aside and endorsed Harris. The Biden campaign had previously expanded efforts to target supporters of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and moderate Republicans more broadly, like with the hiring of Weatherford, the longtime chief of staff to Kinzinger.