Scott Powers
Another major figure in Florida Republican politics — former Attorney General and former Secretary of State Jim Smith — is coming out with his support for Joe Biden and opposition to President Donald Trump.
“I’m a Republican today, I’ll be a Republican tomorrow, but in 2020 I’m a Biden Republican,” Smith declares in a new independent video produced by Democratic consultant Kevin Cate and released Friday afternoon. “I’m very proud to be Republican, but there are times when you have to put your country ahead of politics, and that is why I have voted for Joe Biden to be the President.”
The video was released on Twitter.
“He brings high-energy to the office. He brings decency to the office. And he has a real plan to end the coronavirus,” Smith added.
Smith, a lawyer originally from Jacksonville, is a former Democrat who switched parties after losing a primary battle for Governor in 1986. He also is a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, losing to Jeb Bush in the 1994 Republican primary, and was a chief of staff under Gov. Bob Martinez. He served as Florida Attorney General from 1979-1987, and served two terms as as Florida Secretary of State, 1987-1995, and 2002-2003.
In 1998 Smith and Brian Ballard founded the heavyweight lobbying firm Smith & Ballard, but in 2011 they split and went their separate ways. In 2011, Smith joined The Southern Group‘s Tallahassee office. Ballard & Partners has since become closely identified with Trump.
His daughter Kathryn married Ballard. Late Friday night, she publicly repudiated her father in her cause of supporting Trump.
“My father supported Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter. He voted for Hilary Clinton. I won’t tolerate that, nor will my girls. We are all for DJT. We need our POTUS for four more years,” Kathryn Ballard tweeted.
Smith’s coming out as a Biden supporter follows Thursday’s similar public declaration by Republican Pasco County Tax Collector and former longtime lawmaker Mike Fasano, In another video produced by Cate, Fasano called Trump “an embarrassment.”
Around Florida Smith and Fasano joined the ranks of Republicans abandoning Trump most known for the “Never-Trumpers” such as longtime, high-level GOP operatives Rick Wilson, who’s helping lead the national campaign of The Lincoln Project to defeat Trump, and Mac Stipanovich, who had run President Ronald Reagan‘s Florida campaign in 1984.
Nationally, the Republicans-for-Biden ranks have included former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the late U.S. Sen. John McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, and daughter, MeghanMcCain, former George W. Bush-era Secretary of State ColinPowell and a host of former Trump administration staffers, among others.
Fmr. GOP Florida Attorney General & Secretary of State Jim Smith endorses @JoeBiden for President.
“There are times when you have to put your country ahead of politics… I’m a Republican today, I’ll be a Republican tomorrow, but in 2020, I’m a #BidenRepublican.” pic.twitter.com/MpZuy9JQtN
— Kevin Cate (@KevinCate) October 30, 2020
8 comments
James Robert Miles
October 31, 2020 at 8:06 am
Gee, another Republican with a brain! The rats are abandoning the sinking ship!!
Harold Finch
October 31, 2020 at 9:14 am
Smith is a closet Democrat who has finally come out!!! And who gives a damn what he, Fasano or any other RINO’s vote for!! They don’t influence anyone. And how do they feel about Kamal Harris being President, because that will transpire early in Biden’s first term, bet on it!!
Oh and I have known Jim Smith since 1986, and he is the most arrogant asshole ever elected to statewide office!!!
PeterH
October 31, 2020 at 9:57 am
There will be a political reckoning the day after the 2020 election. The GOP will sever Trumpsters and QAnon followers from the Party and pretend that this red hat nightmare never happened….. furthermore the GOP will promise that this aberration will NEVER happen again!
Join us at the Lincoln Project to destroy Trumpism.
Ocean Joe
October 31, 2020 at 11:43 am
GOP party platform: “Whatever Trump wants or says goes.” It takes the breath away. As does his mismanagement of covid. Maybe the fossilized turncoat Jim Smith understands as that democracy is on the table.
maritza
October 31, 2020 at 2:11 pm
another washed-up politician with dementia. So what and who cares.
Patrick Henry
November 1, 2020 at 7:30 am
Anyone who would vote for taxpayer funding and killing of innocent babies, tax increases on everyone, packing the Supreme Court, single payer government health insurance and a radical leftist like Kamala Harris is in NO way a Republican. These former politicos have sold their souls. They would do well to think how they will account for their choice at their judgment.
Jim Naugle
November 1, 2020 at 8:29 am
I am a lifelong Democrat. But I am not a Marxist. I am voting for Trump. Keep America America!
Roger Osborne
November 2, 2020 at 12:38 pm
I am an old Hubert Humphrey Democrat who voted for Jimmy Carter and regretted it for the rest of my life. I figured out that the Democrats are fear mongers and liars. They lied about Ronald Reagan and they are lying about Donald Trump. I am glad his daughters have discovered the truth like I did. For Jim Smith who cares what you think.
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