Former Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who served three decades in the House and retired in 2022 after voting to impeach former President Donald J. Trump, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, becoming the latest G.O.P. figure to cross party lines and vouch for her.
Mr. Upton said in a statement that the former president was “unfit to serve as commander in chief again” and blamed him for the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “when he directly jeopardized the peaceful transition from one administration to the next.”
Mr. Upton, 71, said he had already cast his ballot for Ms. Harris — the first time in his life he had voted for a Democrat for president — and that he was confident she would work to “bring people together.”
He argued that it was long past time for Republicans to abandon Mr. Trump.
“Time and time again, respected senior national Republicans have urged our former president to focus on governing rather than personal attacks, mistruths and continued false 2020 election claims,” he said. “Instead of heeding that advice, we see unhinged behavior not acceptable in most forums almost daily.”
Ms. Harris is hoping that support from Mr. Upton, a moderate Republican in a critical battleground state, could help sway just the kind of Michigan voter she needs to peel away from Mr. Trump to win. She is working to appeal to G.O.P. voters who may have supported Nikki Haley in the primary and may still be reluctant to back Mr. Trump, but who are also on the fence about voting for a Democrat.
Ed Duggan, the Harris campaign’s Michigan state director, called Mr. Upton’s endorsement a “courageous and honorable decision to put country over party.”
The campaign has poured tens of millions of dollars into a paid media campaign targeting anti-Trump Republicans and has been courting surrogates like Mr. Upton, lifelong Republicans who have been willing to speak out against Mr. Trump and lend their backing to Ms. Harris.
Ms. Harris appeared in a Detroit suburb earlier this week with former Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, who has been making a fervent appeal to conservative voters like herself not to support Mr. Trump.
“For anybody who is a Republican who is thinking that, you know, they might vote for Donald Trump because of national security policy, I ask you: Please, please study his national security policy,” Ms. Cheney said in Michigan. “Not only is it not Republican, it’s dangerous.”
The Harris campaign is competing across the state in Michigan, even opening offices in red counties that Mr. Trump won by double digits four years ago. The goal is to grind out a win by whittling down his margins there.
And in the suburbs, like the one Ms. Harris visited with Ms. Cheney by her side, the campaign sees opportunities for gains with female voters. A recent New York Times/Siena Poll showed that 9 percent of registered Republicans said they planned to vote for Ms. Harris, up from 5 percent in the last poll. The Harris campaign is pushing to increase that number to double digits.
In Congress, Mr. Upton served as the G.O.P. vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and as chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.
When Mr. Upton announced his retirement, Mr. Trump celebrated. “UPTON QUITS! Four down and six to go,” he said in a statement referring to the 10 Republicans who had voted to impeach him over his role in the Jan. 6 attack. “Others losing badly, who’s next?”
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