Two Republicans, including a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday urging their fellow party members to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"I knew Ronald Reagan. I worked for Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan," Doug Elmets said, contrasting Reagan's famous line to Soviet President Mikhain Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall" with the 2016 GOP nominee's vow to build a border wall to keep out illegal immigrants.
"Reagan saw nuance, and Trump sees the world as us-versus-them where somebody with brown skin or a foreign-sounding name is likely to blame for our troubles," Elmets said. "Reagan knew that a leader needs diplomacy to steer us a safe, prosperous course forward. Trump is a petulant, dangerously unbalanced reality star who will coddle tyrants and alienate allies."
Elmets said he disagrees with Clinton on many policy positions, but still finds her qualifications "indisputable."
Calling this year's Republican platform "the most alarming I've ever seen," Elmets said it is "laced with anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-women positions that do not represent the views of most Americans."
Jennifer Pierotti Lim, co-founder of Republican Women for Hillary, said she has never before voted for anyone but a Republican.
"I believe in the bedrock values of the Republican Party: liberty, equality and the belief that there are individual rights that cannot be taken away," she said. "Because the Republican Party has abandoned those values this year, this Republican is voting for Hillary Clinton."
In Trump's America, she said, it doesn't matter what she has accomplished as an attorney and policy expert.
"All that matters is how attractive I am on a scale of one to 10."
Some have accused her of voting for Clinton only because she is a woman, Pierotti Lim said, but added, "People who say that dismiss my voice and Hillary's long record of public service."
She urged Republicans who oppose Trump to not sit home in November, but to actively support Clinton.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican who considered running this year as an independent,
endorsed Clinton at the convention on Wednesday, calling Trump a "dangerous demagogue."