Republican mayor from border state explains why he just endorsed Harris for president (2024)

Since Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign, she’s racked up endorsem*nts from former presidents, party leaders in Congress and won the support of enough delegates to clinch the nomination. Now, the Harris campaign announced the support of more than a dozen mayors in Arizona, including Republican John Giles of Mesa. Geoff Bennett spoke with Giles about his decision to back Harris.

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• Geoff Bennett:

  In the 10 days since Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign, she's racked up endorsem*nts from some usual suspects, former Democratic presidents, party leaders in Congress, and she's won the support of enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

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  But, yesterday, the Harris campaign announced the support of more than a dozen mayors in the critical battleground state of Arizona. One standout name on the list was Republican John Giles of Mesa.

  He wrote in The Arizona Republic — quote — "Too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket."

  Mesa Mayor John Giles joins us now.

  Thanks for being with us.

  John Giles (R), Mayor of Mesa, Arizona: My pleasure. Thank you for the invitation.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So why are you supporting Vice President Harris, instead of former President Donald Trump, in this election?

• John Giles:

  Well, as you mentioned, I am a Republican, so it's an endorsem*nt that came with a lot of thought. An, also, I'm elected in a nonpartisan election as the mayor. So I don't go out of my way looking to inject myself into partisan politics when I can avoid it.

  But every so often, there are compelling issues that I feel like I — silence is not an option, silence would be acquiescence. And this is one of those important elections. I felt similarly four years ago. I wanted to vote against Donald Trump as much or more than I wanted to vote for President Biden.

  And this time around, a similar position, I — it's important to me that we not go through the chaos of another Trump presidency. But I am genuinely excited about the prospects of Kamala Harris being our president.

• Geoff Bennett:

  As you mentioned, you voted for President Biden in 2020, but you hadn't endorsed him before he exited the race. Why does Vice President Harris get your public support now, when President Biden hadn't?

• John Giles:

  I think, ultimately, I probably would have given my support to President Biden.

  But I am very excited with the vice president's entry into the campaign. It's been fun to see the energy that she's brought. I think Arizona is very much in play, where I'm not sure that it was before. And that's even before we discussed the possibility of Senator Kelly joining the ticket.

  So there's genuinely a lot of excitement around the Harris campaign. Now, she — again, she's a Democrat, and so there are absolutely some policy issues that she and I differ on. But in spite of that, what I do know about her is that the top item on her agenda is doing what's best for the United States. And I honestly cannot say that about Mr. Trump.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Immigration is a big issue in this election. What's your assessment of her record on immigration and what's the situation the ground in Arizona right now?

• John Giles:

  I wouldn't say that's an issue. That's the issue in Arizona.

  So that's an issue that the vice president's going to have to come to Arizona and convince the people here that she has a good policy and that she is going to work, treating it as a problem to be solved, as opposed to President Trump's approach, which is to treat it as an issue to be exploited.

  Republicans are attempting to blame her for the surges and the chaos at the border. I think there's blame to be passed all around, going back multiple presidential administrations. But, in particular, I'm disappointed with President Trump's decision to kill the bipartisan immigration act that Senator Sinema and others worked on so hard.

  That would have been a tremendous help at the border. So, again, Vice President Harris is going to have to address this issue head on, especially in border states like Arizona. But I think, when all the facts are on the table, the majority of the blame for the problem there is going to go to President Trump's attempts to derail a lot of work that has gone into trying to solve that problem.

• Geoff Bennett:

  President Biden won Arizona back in 2020 by fewer than 11,000 votes. He was the first Democrat to win that state in over two decades.

  An Emerson College poll out this past week had V.P. Harris trailing Donald Trump by five points there. Can Kamala Harris win Arizona in this cycle? What more does she need to do?

• John Giles:

  She can.

  I think she needs to remind people like me who, four years ago, maybe we were Republicans, we were moderate Democrats, we need to remind people how chaotic four years of Donald Trump was. We truly were referring to it as our national nightmare. People seem to have, for some reason, forgotten that experience.

  So I think, if she presents herself as a moderate person in Arizona, someone who maybe has evolved on some of the issues that she was such a vigorous advocate when she — early on in her political life, and the contrast between her and President Trump is stark, and he does not compare well.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Mesa Mayor John Giles, a Republican who's supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in this presidential election.

  Thanks for your time, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate it.

• John Giles:

  Thank you.

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