Prominent turncoats, faith-driven endorsements shape US election's final days, experts say

One prominent pro-Trump figure says that Donald Trump is the only candidate with a proven record of hobbling Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Since those capabilities threaten the US as well as Israel, this man sees voting for Trump as a way of securing the country’s future.  His words carry special weight because, until very recently, former Florida Congressman Peter Deutsch was a lifelong Democrat, even serving as surrogate for presidential candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

Similarly, one pro-Harris woman says that Trump’s every word and action are “antithetical” to the teachings and example of Jesus, explaining that she cannot understand how any American of faith could support Trump. She describes her vote for Kamala Harris as both an act of conscience and a way to ensure a safe future for America.

Her words carry special weight because Jerushah Duford—granddaughter of the late evangelical preacher Billy Graham—is a dissenter among her evangelical peers, 80% of whom are expected to vote Republican. Even her closest relatives are appalled at Duford’s outspoken dissent from the party line.

With two days to go until the American election, undecided voters are looking toward public statements, op-eds, media appearances, and social media posts of prominent individuals in search of guidance. 

This past week alone brought an avalanche of public statements. Actor and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared his support for Harris on the social media platform X, writing, “I will always be an American before I am a Republican.”

In a 20-minute video, professional boxer Jake Paul set out to “present my 80-million-large audience with proper facts, numbers, and data to encourage them to vote in the proper direction to quite literally save America”—in other words, for Trump. The internet is overflowing with prominent people in all fields delivering their eleventh-hour endorsements.

The most surprising—and perhaps most credible—proclamations come from turncoats who appear to have wrestled with their historic party and family affiliations and broken free. Perhaps no one exemplifies this more than Deutsch, whose defection from the Democrats made headlines around the world.

“I do not take this decision lightly; if Joe Biden was the candidate, I would probably not be doing what I am doing,” Deutsch told The Media Line. “I would not have disrupted my life and been spending a month in the state of Pennsylvania at my own expense.”

Deutsch joined Trump’s campaign in the swing state of Pennsylvania because the Jewish vote there is expected to be critical. He estimated that about 20,000 Jewish voters in Pennsylvania are undecided regarding the election.

In early October, Deutsch announced his support for Trump in much the same passionate manner in which he had thrown his support behind Al Gore when the outcome of the 2000 election was contested. After his October announcement, Deutsch wrote a flurry of op-eds with help from the Trump campaign, arguing that only Trump can keep America safe from the threat of Iran.

Leading up to his decision, Deutsch said he had several heart-to-heart talks with his Democratic friends and colleagues, “meaningful conversations where I could hear their responses because I took this very seriously.” Ultimately, he said, he was unconvinced by their arguments for supporting Kamala Harris, whom he believes to be ill-equipped to protect Israel and America during this time of looming threat. Reflecting on the “four years of peace” during Trump’s presidency, Deutsch felt reassured that Trump was the right choice for president.

When speaking about his dramatic decision to support the GOP nominee, Deutsch is eager to demonstrate his Democratic bona fides. “When Al Gore ran for president, I wrote more checks for him than anyone else in the United States of America,” he quipped. 

A fan of President Joe Biden, Deutsch was stopped short by Harris’ last-minute candidacy. “I think Kamala Harris is worse than Joe Biden on so many issues. When she became the nominee, I began thinking about this more,” he explained. “Looking at the possibility of her becoming the president bothered me. I felt I had to do something more than just vote.” 

That “something” took place over the past month with help from Susie Wiles, the senior Trump campaign adviser whose team helped him hone his message and place his seismic op-eds. 

Surpises for Harris as well

Equally earthshaking is the support for Kamala Harris expressed by Duford, granddaughter of America’s best-known evangelical leader. The South Carolina therapist went public with her endorsement of Harris this past August during a Zoom call for the group Evangelicals for Harris, formerly Evangelicals for Biden.

Duford, the resident of a blue city in a red state, is also the niece of scandal-ridden evangelical preacher Franklin Graham. While she has been outspoken about opposing Donald Trump since 2016, she didn’t receive national attention for her views until 2020, when an op-ed she wrote for USA Today became the second most-read opinion piece that year. This past summer, when Duford announced her full-throated support for Kamala Harris, her words catapulted her to international acclaim. 

Duford explained that her opposition to Trump is rooted in her Christian faith since she sees Trump’s actions and rhetoric as entirely antithetical to the loving teachings of Jesus. That those beliefs make her a minority among evangelicals is shocking to her. 

She said that political role models such as Trump have caused a defection from the church by violating core Christian principles such as kindness, care for the stranger and the poor, and lovingkindness. “I speak out more from the faith side than from the political,” Duford told The Media Line. “People over the past eight years have said, ‘I want nothing to do with Christianity,’ and I say, this is not who Jesus is. People are leaving the church in droves, and it started in 2016.”

Like many Democrats, Duford is astonished that the release of the Access Hollywood tape in 2016—in which Trump spoke crudely about women—did not end Trump’s candidacy. “The first time as a therapist that I had medication for anxiety was after [Trump] was elected,” she said. “I was so disheartened for my friends in marginalized communities … so disheartened that this was the decision my country made.”

The highly flammable nature of MAGA America both worries and motivates Duford, who is camera-shy by nature. “I hate the spotlight,” she admitted.

If Trump is in such clear violation of the teachings of Jesus, why is there so much support for him in the evangelical community? The answer, Duford said, is connected but not limited to the GOP’s pro-life platform. “That is the issue that everyone stands on,” she said. “There is lots of truth to that, but I also think that white, middle- to upper-class evangelicals are not really standing for what they say they stand for. They are standing for comfort, for their bank accounts, and not the things I think Jesus stood for.”

Her vote for Harris is also a vote for the future of her daughters, one of whom is a Black adoptee. Duford is appalled by the racism her child is exposed to within the Republican party. She is inspired to be outspoken in her convictions by the example of her grandmother, Ruth, the wife of Billy Graham, whom she terms “a little spitfire.”

Duford is convinced that more evangelicals oppose Trump than is commonly believed. “I do hear from hundreds of people saying, ‘Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking,’” she said. “Others are thinking as I am but have not been given the same platform.”

Looking toward Tuesday, Deutsch, too, feels optimistic. “I speak with people [in Pennsylvania] and give them my spiel,” he said. “Many are thanking me. I believe I am changing minds … and votes.”