The Slatest

Sitting Republican Congressman Says He Will Vote for Hillary Clinton

Republican Rep. Richard Hanna at an event commemorating congressional passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (which was never fully ratified) in Washington on March 22, 2012.

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New York Republican Rep. Richard Hanna will vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, he announced in an letter to and interview with Syracuse.com this morning. Hanna, a three-term congressman who is not seeking re-election, writes that “the Republican Party is becoming increasingly less capable of nominating a person who is electable as president” and says that Trump “is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country.”

Hanna, a 65-year-old who founded a construction business after graduating from Oregon’s (famously liberal) Reed College, had announced in March that he would not vote for Trump or Ted Cruz if either were selected as the GOP’s presidential nominee. He told Syracuse.com that he was moved to publicly support Clinton by Trump’s attacks on the parents of late Army Capt. Humayun Khan.

More from Hanna’s letter:

Secretary Clinton has issues that depending on where one stands can be viewed as great or small. But she stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. … While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton. I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead. All Republicans may not like the direction, but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate.

Hanna, who was rated as one of the least conservative Republican members of the House in National Journal’s 2013 assessment, represents the 22nd Congressional District in central New York, which stretches from Lake Ontario to New York’s border with Pennsylvania.

Read more Slate coverage on the 2016 campaign.