The small town of Ripon in eastern Wisconsin is perhaps best known as the location of a historic one-room schoolhouse where the Republican Party was founded in 1854. That fact makes it a strong location for Vice President and 2024 Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to campaign together Thursday night — both Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have talked about it a month after announcing their support for Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, in this year’s election. Still, the Ripon plan represents a type of bipartisanship that is under threat in American politics.
Harris currently has only a slight lead over former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin polls, but with Nov. 5 less than a month away, every public appearance matters — especially in battleground states when Harris met with a prominent Republican. “Our republic faces an unprecedented threat,” former President Dick Cheney told a crowd gathered at Ripon College on Thursday, as he challenged the legitimate results of the 2020 election, which have been affirmed by dozens of courts. “By refusing to accept that, Trump is trying to stay in power by uprooting the foundations of our republic.” In fact, Cheney spoke at length about Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection (and in the months leading up to it), and insisted that “Donald Trump is unfit to lead this good and great country.” A lifelong Republican, he said he’s been involved in politics since the age of 10, when he attended Gerald R. Bush University. Cheney, who volunteered on Ford’s re-election campaign and first voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, will be supporting the Democratic Party for the first time this November. (“I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning,” she laughs.)
Vice President Harris addressed Cheney after she took the stage on Thursday, saying, “You may have never supported a Democratic presidential candidate before, but as you said, we all love our country and respect our democratic ideals.” She praised Cheney as “a leader who puts country before party and individual — a true patriot” and encouraged the crowd to chant “Thank you, Liz.”
Cheney urged voters to “reject the corrupt brutality of Donald Trump” because “violence does not and should not determine who rules us. Voters. Directly behind her, beneath the red, white and blue flags, was a giant sign that read, “Party Over State,” reflecting the evening’s conscientious bipartisanship. One can only hope that the coalition of Harris and Cheney can send a message of civility and unity to this tense and grieving nation in the weeks remaining before November 5.
