Former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and the first Secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush, Tom Ridge says he will be voting for Joe Biden this November.
“I will cast my vote for Joe Biden on Nov. 3. It will be my first vote for a Democratic candidate for president of the United States. But it is not the first time I have said “no” to Donald Trump. I urge my fellow Pennsylvanians to join me,” Ridge wrote in an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday.
In 2015, Ridge told NBC’s Chuck Todd that Donald Trump was an embarrassment to the Republican Party and our country. Five years later Ridge still holds this belief and takes personal pride in being one of the first top Republicans in the country to reject Donald Trump.
“He lacks the empathy, integrity, intellect and maturity to lead. He sows division along political, racial and religious lines,” Ridge writes. “He routinely dismisses the opinions of experts who know far more about the subject at hand than he does – intelligence, military, and public health. Our country has paid dearly in lives lost, social unrest, economic hardship and our standing in the world,” he added.
Pennsylvania has emerged, once again as a key battleground state that will ultimately determine who wins the White House this November. Ridge believes voting for Biden is the “responsible” vote.
“It’s a vote for decency. A vote for the rule of law. And a vote for honest and earnest leadership. It’s time to put country over party. It’s time to dismiss Donald Trump.”
Ridge is now the third former Republican governor from a swing state to endorse Joe Biden for president. He joins John Kasich from Ohio and Rick Snyder from Michigan.
