FIRST ON FOX: The Harris-Walz campaign is deploying former House Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in a final appeal to Republicans in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin.
Cheney and political commentator Charlie Sykes are featured in a pair of new radio ads being launched on Monday, taking aim at former President Trump and promoting Vice President Kamala Harris. Fox News Digital was the first national outlet to preview the clips.
“I am a Ronald Reagan conservative. Never voted for a Democrat. But we’ve never faced a threat like this before – what Donald Trump is proposing in terms of withdrawing from NATO, welcoming Vladimir Putin to attack our NATO allies, praising President Xi of China. America will find our very freedom and security challenged and threatened. It’s a risk we just simply can’t take as a nation,” Cheney said in the ad.
Former House Rep. Liz Cheney is leading a new radio ad in battleground Wisconsin against former President Trump (Left: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images; Right: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images)
“Freedom requires that we have a president who understands America has to lead and that our strength comes both from our greatness and also from our goodness. And that’s Vice President Harris.
“She’s somebody that I know will put the good of this country first. Wisconsin, I ask you to help us elect Kamala Harris, our president.”
Sykes, a former conservative radio host and ex-editor-in-chief of anti-Trump right-wing outlet The Bulwark, said in the second of two ads, “I’ve been a conservative for a long time and my values have not changed. But this election is not normal.”
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“It’s not about liberal versus conservative or Democrat versus Republican. It’s about democracy, the rule of law, character, and whether or not America will continue to be a shining city on a hill to the rest of the world,” he said.
Sykes’ advertisement also invoked the recent New York Times interview with former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly, where the retired general said Trump met the “general definition of a fascist.”
Trump and his allies have forcefully pushed back on that and other claims in Kelly’s interview.
MSNBC contributor and former editor-in-chief of The Bulwark Charlie Sykes was also in a new ad for Harris. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
Outreach to Republicans and Republican-leaning independents has been a core tenet of Harris’ campaign, and one whose benefit will be seen next week after Election Day on Nov. 5.
Multiple polls show Trump and Harris in a near dead-heat with just a few points separating them.
Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have been two of Harris’ most visible GOP supporters.
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In Wisconsin, Harris has been endorsed by the longest-serving state senator, Republican Robert Cowles, as well as Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly, who left the GOP after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but was re-elected to lead the red-leaning city.
Several Republicans, like former House Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August.
But the Trump campaign has dismissed Harris attempts at GOP outreach, with the vast majority of Republicans still publicly supporting the former president.
Cheney has been one of Harris’ most prominent GOP surrogates. ( Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
Cheney, the former vice chair of the House select committee on Jan. 6, lost re-election to a Trump-backed Republican primary challenger in the 2022 elections.
Trump criticized her as “terrible” in comments to Fox News’ Bill Melugin after she endorsed Harris.
“Liz Cheney is a stupid war hawk. All she wants to do is shoot missiles at people…I really think it hurts,” Trump said in early October. “I think they hurt each other.”
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said, “”Liz Cheney is a stone-cold loser who is so desperate for relevance and attention, she has debased herself by campaigning with a weak, failed, and dangerously liberal in Kamala Harris.”
“The both of them are made for each other— proponents of endless wars, killers of Social Security, and enemies of American workers,” Cheung said.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
