Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Steele announced on Tuesday morning that he would be voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden instead of his own party’s standard-bearer, President Donald Trump.
Steele, who served as RNC chair from 2009 to 2011, stated in a NBC News op-ed that he “cannot support the nominee of my party.”
“Rather than seeking to build on the legacy of the Republican Party’s founders, of which Trump is surely ignorant, Trump has posited a single purpose for the GOP — the celebration of him,” Steele asserted.
“Consequently, America has watched as the Republican Party stopped pursuing its animating principles of freedom and opportunity,” he continued. “It has given up its voice on things that mattered and instead bent the arc of the party towards the baser motives of one man, who is neither a Republican nor a conservative.”
Steele noted that he disagrees with Biden “on many issues and policies, sometimes vigorously.”
“But this election is not about those issues or policies,” the ex-RNC chair wrote. “Rather, it is about the course of a nation and the character of her people reflected in the leader they choose.”
Steele’s announcement follows a string of endorsements from some former GOP officials, including ex-governors and lawmakers, who have broken from their party to endorse Biden.
