‘He’s kind of co-opted the party’: Trump-Republican defectors in Texas could tip the state in Biden’s favor

While the Cook Political Report still has Texas as a “lean red” state in its 2020 Electoral College Ratings, a Quinnipiac poll released last week showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump 45% to 44% among registered voters. And according to the Houston Chronicle, a decisive number of anti-Trump Republicans could be contributing to Biden’s lead in the state.

Jacob Monty, an immigration attorney in Houston, became a Republican years ago — attributing his party affiliation to an affection for the Bush family.

“I never had to apologize for them,” Monty told the Chronicle. “I always felt welcome. I never had to explain, ‘Oh, what Bush meant was …’”

“It was very easy to be a Republican,” he said. Now, he worries Trump’s impact on the party’s agenda will doom the future of the Grand Old Party.

“His whole persona is white nationalism,” Monty said of Trump “He’s not going to ever adopt the mainstream Republican position. What’s scary is there is no mainstream Republican position, because he’s kind of co-opted the party.”

Monty briefly served on Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council in 2016, but left in August, before Trump was elected to office.

“The fundamental policies that make people a Republican — American exceptionalism, limited government, free trade, free enterprise — no one’s talking about those,” Monty told the Chronicle. “Those aren’t Trump values, for sure.”

Abel Guerra, who works with Monty on The Lincoln Project’s Texas leadership team, argued “Trump has been emboldened to normalize bigotry and use it as a strategy for his benefit.”

“It is our duty to stop him“ Guerra said.