It’s often said there’s nothing new under the sun, and when it comes to politics, there usually isn’t. 

Yet this fall there’s something that truly hasn’t been seen before: networks of Republicans for Kamala Harris, both state and national. In our time, supposedly, of uniquely partisan politics, it’s a doubly surprising development, though not according to those lending their names. 

In Maine, two former state senators, Peter Mills and Roger Katz, joined Tony Payne, a former GOP congressional candidate, to kick off the effort. 

Since then, they’ve attracted support from a notable cast of Republicans, including three former party chairs and David Emery, who held the 1st District Congressional seat from 1974-82. 

Others include Kevin Raye, the most recent GOP state Senate president, Ted O’Meara, a state party executive director, and Charlie Cragin, a former nominee for governor. 

In separate interviews, Katz and Mills emphasized this is a serious effort, one designed to appeal to Republican voters who have doubts about Donald Trump, and while not inclined to vote for a Democrat may be considering Kamala Harris. 

“The election is so close that if even a small slice of Republicans reconsider their support for Trump, it could make the difference,” Katz said. “It’s not hyperbole to say he represents a clear and present threat to democracy. We’ve never seen a candidate like this before.” 

Katz quotes with approval former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s sentiment that “Voting for Harris doesn’t make you a Democrat. It makes you a patriot.” 

Mills a lifelong Republican who switched his registration to Democratic when his sister, Janet Mills, ran for governor in 2018, hasn’t gone back. “But I represented my district for 16 years as a Republican,” he said, and it remains part of who he is. 

Mills, who has been criticizing Trump since before his 2016 election, finds nothing to like in the current GOP nominee. “It’s a cult of personality,” he said. “There’s no disagreeing with Trump or dissenting in any way. Those who do so are crushed.” 

That theory would explain why few current Republican officeholders are speaking out. Yet nationally Republicans working against a second Trump term are notable: more than 100 former federal officeholders, a dozen former appointees who served in Trump’s administration, and several headliners. 

The list now includes Dick Cheney, the architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq for President George W. Bush and the father of Liz Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman and GOP whip who was driven out of the party after she joined the House Jan. 6 investigating committee, which held hearings on the 2021 invasion of the Capitol amid an attempted insurrection. 

Former Sen. Jeff Flake from Arizona, who gave up his seat in 2018 rather that seek reelection after criticizing Trump, endorsed Harris last week. There will be others. 

Katz said that there is “no organization, no staff, no money” behind the movement. “We just decided we needed to raise our voices and encourage others to do so.” 

He does hope the Harris campaign, which has plenty of money to amplify the message, will reach out. “This isn’t just about Trump,” he said. “We really do support the vice president.” 

Mills agrees. During her brief campaign – President Biden took himself out of the running just over two months ago – Harris has impressed Mills, who made a surprising comparison. 

“She reminds me of Margaret Chase Smith,” he said – the Republican senator who served four terms from 1949 to 1973, during which she was the only woman in the Senate. 

Harris “is the same kind of person,” Mills said. “She speaks well, handles herself nicely, and has a good plainspoken style that appeals to people.” 

Mills was seven years old when his family, then all Republicans, “was bursting with pride” over Smith’s 1950 “Declaration of Conscience” speech denouncing the red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, her fellow Republican, who produced imaginary lists of communists in the State Department before finally falling from favor four years later. 

The analogy resonates for Mills, who says Trump creates dangers to democracy many of his followers doesn’t perceive. 

Katz seconded that. He recently read William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” a classic account of Adolf Hitler’s hold over Germany, “which I’d always been meaning to.” He was struck by how many professionals – “lawyers, clergymen, public officials” – opposed Hitler’s rise but nonetheless said nothing rather than risk their careers. 

“We can’t make that mistake again,” he said. “We can’t remain silent.” 

Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 40 years. He is the author of four books, most recently a biography of U.S. Chief Justice Melville Fuller, and welcomes comment at drooks@tds.net.