NPR News

Kamala Harris is making an unusual pilgrimage today -- to the birthplace of the GOP

By Franco Ordoñez

Published October 3, 2024 at 5:00 AM EDT

Vice President Harris boards Air Force Two as she departs Augusta Regional Airport in Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday. On Thursday, she will travel to Ripon, Wisconsin, the town known as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

The town known as the birthplace of the Republican Party is an unlikely campaign stop for a Democratic presidential candidate.

But on Thursday, Vice President Harris will be holding an event in Ripon, Wisc. — home to the Little White Schoolhouse, where an 1854 meeting led to the formation of the Republican Party.

Harris will be joined in Ripon by former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who endorsed her last month. Harris’ campaign says they will speak about the history of the GOP and appeal to Republicans and independent voters disillusioned with her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.

"I will always put country above party, and I will be a president for all Americans,” Harris said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., last month, noting that more than 200 prominent Republicans had backed her campaign.

Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, are staunch conservatives who have said they will vote for Harris because they believe former President Donald Trump poses a danger to American democracy.

Liz Cheney (right) presides alongside Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) over a hearing on the January 6th investigation on June 09, 2022 on Capitol Hill. Cheney has said she will vote for Kamala Harris because she believes Donald Trump poses a danger to American democracy.

Liz Cheney became a vocal opponent of Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She voted to impeach him and later served on a House committee that investigated the attack. She lost her primary race in 2022 to a candidate backed by Trump.

Dick Cheney said in a statement last month that Trump "can never be trusted with power again" because he “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”