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The Democratic president's campaign has hired a national
Republican engagement director: Austin Weatherford, who was
chief of staff to former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger,
an outspoken critic of Trump, the official said.
Weatherford has been hired "to head up outreach efforts to
independents and moderate Republicans who know what a danger
Donald Trump is to the country if reelected for a second term,"
the official said.
Biden and Trump are in a tighter rematch for the White House
than in 2020, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Biden's
support among voters without a four-year degree is down 10
percentage points from the same period in 2020, the analysis
found.
Most national opinion polls are showing a tied race.
Trump has often dismissed members of his party who do not fall
in line behind him as "RINOs," for Republicans in Name Only, for
party members he sees as disloyal. The Trump campaign did not
return a request for comment.
Both Biden and Trump campaigns scrambled to woo supporters of
former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who dropped out of
the Republican primary race in March. Haley did not endorse
Trump at the time but has since said she would vote for him.
The Biden campaign has held meetings with Haley voters and is
placing a "seven-figure ad buy" targeting such voters, the Biden
campaign official said. There's little precedent for large
numbers of Republicans to back a Democrat in a presidential
election.
Trump, meanwhile, is fundraising in liberal San Francisco,
hoping to attract venture capital money from those turned off by
Biden's liberal policies.
The Republican Party has coalesced around Trump this election
season, after his repeated lies about having won the 2020
election against Biden, and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S.
Capitol led by his followers.
Kinzinger and fellow U.S. Representative Liz Cheney were the
only two Republicans who joined the the House of Representatives
Jan. 6 select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.
Both were later censured by the party.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Nandita Bose; Editing by Heather
Timmons)
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