Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele formally endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday, a predictable move given his role in the NeverTrump group, the Lincoln Project.
Steele, who failed in his bid to become a senator and governor in his home state of Maryland, was elected RNC chair in January 2009, overlapping with the first three years of the Obama–Biden administration.
Although his tenure saw Republicans retake Congress in the 2010 midterm, Steele lost to the more conservative Reince Preibus at the RNC election the following year.
The blue-state centrist Steele broke rank with the growing Tea Party movement as it began to demand a stronger resistance to Obama’s partisan and highly polarizing style of governance.
However, Steele has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s since day one.
Trump’s is “not the kind of leadership that the country needs,” Steele said this week.
“Many of Donald Trump’s supporters bring legitimate concerns to the table,” he said.
“During my time leading the GOP, I endeavored to address these and other grievances through the lens of unity and growth,” he continued. “But Trump has energized the party through the exact opposite means—by focusing on stoking division and eroding our core principles,” Steele said in a statement issued by the Lincoln Project.
Biden “will pursue options that work towards healing the divide,” Steele claimed.
Steele joined the Lincoln Project, a group of NeverTrump grifters, in August, and recently appeared in an advertisement for the group.
In it, he admitted that he disagrees with Biden on “some policy points,” but will support him anyways “because we share an everlasting loyalty to what is ultimately best for our nation.”
This election, former RNC Chair and a lifelong Republican, @MichaelSteele, is voting to restore the soul of our nation.
He’s voting for Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/iO2bl8OYvW
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 20, 2020
Steele also said he supports the Lincoln Project’s efforts to oust Republican senators who have been supportive of Trump. That includes Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, each of whom worked with Steele while he was RNC chairman.
Steele is the second former RNC chairman to endorse Biden. Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, who held the RNC chairmanship in the early years of former President George W. Bush’s presidency, endorsed Biden last month.
