Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, is bucking his party and endorsing President Joe Biden over Donald Trump in this year’s election.
“This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass,” he wrote in an opinion piece in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Duncan wrote that the GOP can’t rebuild until it rebukes Trump, who he said “has disqualified himself through his conduct and his character.” He pointed out that the former president is currently on trial over a scheme involving hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“Most important, Trump fanned the flames of unfounded conspiracy theories that led to the horrific events of Jan. 6, 2021,” Duncan wrote. “He refuses to admit he lost the last election and has hinted he might do so again after the next one.”
He also had a reminder for voters concerned about issues such as higher taxes and campus unrest over Gaza.
“I get it. No one likes paying higher taxes, and these protests are unsettling,” he wrote. “But the last year of the Trump presidency was hardly a time of tranquillity.”
He blasted Trump’s “erratic” handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and said the then-president “fueled racial unrest” with his approach to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
“Trump has shown us who he is,” Duncan wrote. “We should believe him. To think he is going to change at the age of 77 is beyond improbable.”
Duncan sparred with Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election, refusing to endorse his conspiracy theories or take part in his efforts to overturn the result, drawing the then-president’s ire.
He’s remained a persistent Trump critic, last year comparing him to an “ax murderer” and delivering a warning to his supporters.
“I think Republicans, like many other people in Donald Trump’s past, are going to regret ever being associated with him,” Duncan said on CNN last summer.
Duncan had been approached by No Labels to run as a third-party candidate against Trump and Biden, but declined.
Read his full editorial endorsing Biden at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.