Texas GOP elector announces he won't vote for Trump
A Republican elector in Texas says he will not formally vote for Donald Trump for president when members of the Electoral College meet on Dec. 19.
In an op-ed published by The New York Times, Christopher Suprun, a paramedic in Texas, argued that the president-elect has demonstrated each day that “he is not qualified for the office.”
Mr. Trump, Suprun wrote, has failed to unite the country as President George W. Bush did after 9/11. Instead, he has ranted and attacked the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
“He tweets day and night, but waited two days to offer sympathy to the Ohio State community after an attack there. He does not encourage civil discourse, but chooses to stoke fear and create outrage,” he wrote. “This is unacceptable. For me, America is that shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan envisioned. It has problems. It has challenges. These can be met and overcome just as our nation overcame Sept. 11.”
Suprun went on to say Mr. Trump “lacks the foreign policy experience and demeanor needed to be commander in chief” and lambasted him for how he “urged violence against protesters at his rallies during the campaign. He speaks of retribution against his critics.”
He added that the election of Mr. Trump is “not yet a done deal” and he urged other electors to “vote their conscience” and unify behind a GOP alternative like Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
While a few dozen states have laws that try to bind the votes of presidential electors, Texas is not one of them. Suprun would be known as a “faithless elector” and while there have been some in previous elections, they have never changed the outcome.
Harvard University law professor Larry Lessig has announced that he will provide free counsel to electors who want to oppose Mr.Trump, according to Politico. It’s called “The Electors Trust” and it will offer a platform for electors to plan how to stop the president-elect.