OpEd: My time for choosing: I'm a Republican and I'm endorsing Harris and Walz
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... Some might call me a traitor or a RINO. But I urge my fellow Republicans to also support them.

Sixty years ago, near the end of the 1964 presidential election, Ronald Reagan gave a speech supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater that launched Reagan's political career and paved the way to him becoming the 40th president of the United States 16 years later.

In his famous "A Time for Choosing" speech, Reagan noted that he had spent most of his life as a Democrat. But he had recently "seen fit to follow another course," as he believed "the issues confronting us cross party lines." ...

I turned 50 years old last year, and I am choosing man's old-aged dream.

As a Republican, I choose to proudly support Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president. ...

Earlier this year in the primary, I voted for Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador. But I watched with frustration as Trump easily won the nomination of the Republican Party.

I expected that Trump directing a mob to engage in a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol would prevent him from becoming the Republican nominee for president in 2024.

I was wrong. ...

However, I know my loyalty to the Republican Party will be questioned because of my decision to support Harris and Walz. I will likely be labeled a traitor or a RINO -- a Republican In Name Only.

In the face of this criticism, I urge my fellow Republicans to consider this: Supporting Harris and Walz is not about abandoning the Republican Party.

It is about standing up for the principles the party once represented " principles that I believe will be at risk if Trump returns to the White House. ...

I watched Walz go from congressman to governor, and I have come to respect him. He embodies a joyful politics that serves as a welcome reprieve from the divisiveness that has become so prevalent in our political discourse.

It is in Walz's political DNA to unite people, and he is the right person to serve alongside Harris. ...

On Nov. 5, 1984, Reagan addressed the nation the night before the presidential election. He said:

"This election offers us the clearest choice in many years: whether we go forward together with courage, confidence and common sense, making America strong again, or turn back to policies that weakened our economy, diminished our leadership in the world and reversed America's long-revered tradition of progress."

Forty years later, I am making the clearest choice I've had in any election. I, too, choose to go forward together with courage, confidence and common sense.

Michael Brodkorb is the former deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota. He lives in Eagan. ...