Romney campaign veterans turn on Trump and GOP, back Biden

Veterans of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign are eyeing an alliance with Joseph R. Biden, looking to make a splash in announcing they have turned their backs on the GOP this year and will support the presumptive Democratic nominee instead. Micah Spangler, who was a staffer in southern Florida for the Republican Party during the race, told fellow campaign vets in emails Friday and over the weekend that he is working with the Biden team “to cultivate a network of Romney alums that want to help elect Joe in November.” In a separate email to The Washington Times, he said he has received an outpouring of support over the first few days but wouldn’t say what motivated him to flip. “Dozens and dozens of Romney 2012 staffers have ‘signed up’— and there’s plenty more outreach to do,” he said in the email. But some Romney campaign folks were indignant at the idea that anyone would leap from Mr. Romney to Mr. Biden, who as vice president was on the ticket in 2012 running against Mr. Romney. “I wish my former Romney teammates no personal ill-will. But I question the patriotism and wisdom of supporting Joe Biden, who would be a cultural and economic disaster for the country,” said Brett Doster, who was a senior adviser for Mr. Romney’s Florida effort in 2012. “The Biden leftists can’t wait to flush free markets, the Constitution and unborn babies all down the same socialist sewage pipe.” Andrew M. Bonderud, a lawyer who worked on the Romney campaign in Florida, said he didn’t remember Mr. Spangler but figured he was “probably a bit of an opportunist,” looking to capitalize on the possibility of a Biden victory. “I think it’s madness,” he said. “I suspect it’s going to have a small audience. Most of the people with whom I worked on the Romney campaign are supporting Trump.” What the effort does, though, is put Mr. Romney in a tricky spot. He was the GOP’s White House nominee in 2012, losing his bid to unseat President Obama in an election that Republicans had thought was winnable. He would go on to win a Senate seat from Utah in 2018, and in February he became the first senator in history to vote to convict and remove a president of his own party, siding with Democrats in their impeachment effort...MORE