Joe Biden
Joe BidenReuters

Nearly 100 former Republican lawmakers and officials endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Thursday, turning against their party’s nominee and incumbent, President Donald Trump.

The endorsement was formally offered Thursday by a group called “Republicans and Independents for Biden”, which was established by former Republican Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, who served as President George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the early 2000s.

The group was launched by the Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by a number of prominent anti-Trump Republicans, including George Conway, the husband of President Trump’s senior counselor Kellyanne Conway; former Republican strategists Steve Schmidt and John Weaver; former Republican political consultant Rick Wilson – who later backed conservative candidate Evan McMullin’s presidential bid in 2016; and New Hampshire congressional candidate Jennifer Horn.

In a statement Thursday, Whitman said the group’s “sole mission is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden the next President of the United States."

“More than 180,000 Americans are dead from a pandemic that, with consistent leadership, could have been contained. Instead, it has been left to spin out of control by a President who ignored it, refused to lead, and endangered American lives,” Whitman said.

“In this moment of great national crisis, we need to elect a leader matched to the moment, someone who can restore competence to the oval office and unify the country. Joe Biden is that leader.”

Aside from Whitman, a handful of other former Republican governors have signed onto the group’s endorsement of Biden, including former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and former Massachusetts Governor – who ran for Vice President as a Libertarian in 2016 and challenged President Trump in the Republican primaries this year.

Others who signed onto the endorsement of Biden’s presidential bid include former GOP congressmen Joe Schwarz, Dave Trott, and Charlie Dent.

While Trump’s ascension within the Republican party in 2016 has led to numerous defections by senior party members and officials, support for the president among self-identified Republican voters remains high.

A new poll by Quinnipiac found that 89% of Republicans approving of President Trump’s job performance, compared to 11% who disapproved.