Texas GOP elector voting Kasich over Trump: ‘I don't consider this a protest vote’
Republican electors are gathering around the country to certify Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. But Chris Suprun says he won’t be one of them.
Suprun, a Republican elector from Texas, told Yahoo News on Monday that Trump is a “demagogue” who would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits any person holding any office from accepting foreign payments. Trump’s business empire is entangled with businesses and governments around the globe.
“He would be profiting off foreign governments from day one,” Suprun said shortly before gathering with his fellow electors in Austin. “I’m trying to vote for a principle, and uphold the Constitution.”
Trump had scheduled a Dec. 15 press conference to announce a plan for his business ahead of his inauguration, but he postponed the announcement until January.
“Mr. Trump has had plenty of chances to figure out his finances prior to the election and since then,” Suprun said.
Given all of that, Suprun says he has no choice but to vote for someone else.
“The Founding Fathers were very clear when they set up the Electoral College,” he said. “It was to protect small states, but part two, to make sure we didn’t elect a demagogue, we elect someone who has the national security interests of the country first in their mind and didn’t have conflicts of interest.”
Related: Electoral College who’s who: Names to know in the pool of 538
The Electoral College has 538 members, each representing one electoral vote. On Election Day, Trump received 306 electoral votes, 36 more than the 270 he needed to clinch the presidency. It would take at least 37 so-called faithless electors like Suprun to block Trump’s win and send the election to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Trump won Texas by 9 points, receiving all 38 of the Longhorn State’s electoral votes. Still, Suprun doesn’t see his shunning the will of the people as a protest vote.
“I don’t consider this a protest vote at all,” Suprun said. “I think there’s entirely too many voters in the nation who were stuck going to the ballot box in November having to choose between one bad candidate and one they consider worse. I’m trying to vote for someone who’s better all the way around, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
So whom is Suprun voting for?
“I will be casting my ballot for Ohio Gov. John Kasich,” Suprun said.
Since announcing his intention not to vote for Trump, Suprun said he’s received death threats and harassment online, including the sexual solicitation of one of his children.
His résumé has also received scrutiny, with one report questioning his claim he was a first responder to the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when he worked as a volunteer firefighter in Virginia.
Suprun said those questions are part of “smear campaign” by Trump supporters to “to try to demoralize and distract from the reasons I’m not voting for Donald Trump.”
