COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Republican Bob Inglis, former South Carolina Congressman from Greenville, is part of a group of former GOP members of Congress who announced Monday they are supporting Democrat Joe Biden for president.
The announcement that Inglis and 26 other Republicans were backing Biden instead of President Donald Trump came Monday morning, hours before the Republican National Convention got underway for the first of four days that will culminate Thursday with Trump's acceptance of his nomination.
"In a strong rebuke to the current administration, these former members of Congress cited Trump's corruption, destruction of democracy, disregard for moral decency and urgent need to get the country back on course as a reason why they support Biden," a Biden for President press release said.
"Trump's failures as president have superseded partisanship," the press release said.
The release said Inglis and other Republicans will form a group called Republicans for Biden, "a national effort" to organize Republicans to vote for Biden. Details of exactly what they will do were not available.
Inglis represented South Carolina's 4th Congressional District, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg, from 1993 to 1999 and from 2005 to January 2011. He lost his seat to Republican Trey Gowdy, a Tea Party favorite, in the 2010 midterms which returned control of the U.S. House to the GOP. Gowdy did not seek reelection in 2018.
Although a conservative in many areas, Inglis, 60, created a stir when he said publicly that he believed the science behind climate change was real, an admission he has said contributed to his loss.
In an interview Monday, Inglis said a lot of things about the Biden candidacy encourage him, including that Biden is willing to explore bipartisan solutions to the nation's problems and that he accepts the science behind earth's changing climate.
"It is a strange place for my party and my country to be hiding behind walls and failing to lead the world on things like climate change," Inglis said.
"I want my party back from these people who were running trillion-dollar deficits before coronavirus. I want it back from people who deal in conspiracy theories rather than the data of climate change. I want it back from people who demean the disabled and women and stir up racial division."
Inglis said he is hopeful this election will be a turning point that will prompt Republicans to again become representative of people who are "optimistic free enterprise conservatives who believe in accountability and individual responsibility."
Inglis said he is not sure the nation can take four more years of Trump. "This is a moment of crisis. I feel like I have got to come forward and support Joe Biden. Who would want their child to grow up and be like Donald J. Trump? Would anybody?"
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an outspoken Trump supporter, published an op-ed on Fox News in which he reaffirmed his support for Trump and encouraged people to vote for him.
"While I've had my differences with the president in terms of policy and style, I will be enthusiastically voting for Donald Trump in 2020 _ not just against Joe Biden," Graham said.
Talking to The (Rock Hill) Herald on Monday, Graham was asked for his reaction to the 27 former GOP members of Congress coming out in support of Biden.
"I know many of them. I consider them friends," said Graham. "I disagree with their assessment about President Trump. He's been a great president for traditional Republican policies.
"I don't know why any Republican would want to turn the country over to (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi, (Senate Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer and Biden. I mean that would be the most radical agenda in my lifetime, so I can understand being upset with the president in terms of tone or sometimes his behavior and style _ I get that. But that doesn't to me justify taking the country down a very dangerous path."
