Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said on Monday that he will not be voting for President Trump in November.
Trumpism cannot be the future of the Republican Partyhttps://t.co/SFuXurnxED
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) April 28, 2020
“This won’t be the first time I’ve voted for a Democrat — though not for president. Last time I voted for a third-party candidate but I will not vote for Donald Trump,” Flake said in an interview with the Washington Post.
Flake cites his concerns about the president that predate the 2016 election and says that he believes a second Trump term will turn away younger voters from the Republican Party, pointing to issues such as immigration and climate change. (RELATED: Flake Rules Out 2020 Run, Joins CBS News)
“I just couldn’t support [Trump] long before he started to run. The birtherism thing was just too much for me. And then it piled on… For young people who’ve grown up around minorities or had a different experience than a lot of us in my generation, they don’t harbor, I think, some of the prejudices that people in my generation do.”
Flake also predicted a GOP return to normalcy once Trump is out of the Oval Office.
“The pendulum swings when one party takes it too far. We’ll be ourselves again.”
Flake served six terms in the House of Representatives before serving one term as the United States Senator from Arizona. He declined to run for re-election in 2018.
As a Senator, he was known as one of Trump’s harshest critics from his own party.