Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, plans to vote for Joe Biden.
“I’ve been very clear that I can’t support Donald Trump,” Fiorina said in an interview on The Atlantic’s podcast, “The Ticket.” “And, you know, elections are binary choices.”
When pressed on whether she would be voting for Biden, Fiorina said, “I’m not voting for Trump, but it’s a binary choice. So if faced with a binary choice on a ballot: yes.”
Fiorina is one of several Republicans who have recently said they won’t vote for Trump in November.
Dozens of Republican former U.S. national security officials are forming a group that will back Biden, in a further sign that Trump has alienated some members of his own party.
It includes at least two dozen officials who served under Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
They will argue that another four years of a Trump presidency would endanger U.S. national security and that Republican voters should view Biden as the better choice despite policy differences.
Other groups of anti-Trump Republicans also are opposing his re-election including the Lincoln Project, co-founded by George Conway, husband of Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway.
It is running anti-Trump ads in key battleground states, including the one below:
Trump has faced an unusual outpouring of criticism from members of the military establishment including from prominent retired generals such as James Mattis, his first defense secretary, and Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state under George W. Bush.
Both denounced Trump’s response to the protests that erupted after the May 25 death of an African-American man named George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
In addition, the current top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, expressed regret over joining Trump in a walk from the White House to a nearby church after protesters were forcibly removed by law enforcement authorities.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said he’ll instead write in a conservative candidate.
Fiorina was among the vast field of Republicans, including Trump, who sought the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016.
She suspended her campaign in February 2016 after disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Several months later, though, Senator Ted Cruz, who was still in the race, announced Fiorina would be his running mate if he won the Republican presidential nomination.
But Cruz would go on to drop out of the presidential race after he lost the Indiana primary that May, clearing the way for Trump to win the Republican nomination.
As a presidential candidate, Trump frequently hurled insults at his GOP competitors, and he did not spare Fiorina from his criticisms.
In 2015, then-candidate Trump insulted her appearance, saying, “Look at that face,” according to Rolling Stone. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”
He continued his attacks on Fiorina on Thursday, tweeting, “Failed presidential candidate (thank you President Trump!), Carly Fiorina, said she will be voting for Corrupt Joe Biden. She lost so badly to me, twice in one campaign, that she should be voting for Joe. No complaints!!!”