The longest-serving member of the Wisconsin state Senate ― a Republican who’s been in the chamber since 1987 ― revealed Thursday that he’s voting Kamala Harris for president, warning that Donald Trump is “a totalitarian and very much a fascist.”
State Sen. Robert Cowles, who’s retiring at the end of his term, shared his decision with Madison-based radio station Civic Media, saying this will be the first time he’s not picking a Republican for president because of the threats the former president poses to American democracy.
Recent reports about Trump allegedly admiring Adolf Hitler, he said, were his final straw.
“The big picture that really came to me in recent days … thinking about fascism in World War II, and members of my own family that fought the fascists both in Japan and Germany,” he said, adding: “And then you’ve got Trump saying nice things about Hitler? And sucking up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? No. He is clearly our enemy, Putin — a living enemy. And we have to show the courage that the people in the World War II era had.”
Wisconsin is a major battleground state. The state went for Trump in 2016 after giving its electoral votes to Democrats in the seven previous elections, but President Joe Bidenreclaimed it in 2020.
Policy disagreements with Harris, Cowles said, are less important than protecting the Constitution.
“The country will go on, even with some liberal things that Harris might do or might not do,” he said. Without respect for the Constitution, he warned, “we will disappear.”
His decision is “one of the most important things I’ve done,” he continued, saying he can live with the blowback from other members of his party.
Cowles’ full interview will air on Civic Media’s “Rational Revolution” on Saturday.
His endorsement comes shortly after Shawn Reilly, the mayor of the Republican stronghold of Waukesha, Wisconsin, also shared he’s voting for Harris. Reilly ― who left the Republican Party and became an independent after the Capitol riot in 2021 ― told The New York Times he’s “very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president.”
Former Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican retired in 2023 after voting to impeach Trump, also said Thursday he’s voting for Harris.
