Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in a new interview that he will not vote for President Trump in November, citing concerns going back before the 2016 campaign.
“I just couldn’t support [Trump] long before he started to run. The birtherism thing was just too much for me. And then it piled on,” Flake, a frequent critic of the president, told The Washington Post.
Flake also said that a second Trump term could turn younger voters away from the Republican Party, pointing to issues including immigration and the environment.
“So for young people who’ve grown up around minorities or had a different experience than a lot of us in my generation, they don’t harbor, I think, some of the prejudices that people in my generation do,” Flake said.
He added that a Trump defeat November would be a “long-term” benefit for the Republican Party and “conservatism as well.”
“This won’t be the first time I’ve voted for a Democrat — though not for president. Last time I voted for a third-party candidate,” he said. “But I will not vote for Donald Trump.”
“The pendulum swings when one party takes it too far,” he said. “We’ll be ourselves again.”
Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Flake served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.
Born in Snowflake, Arizona, Flake attended Brigham Young University, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations, and later his Master of Arts degree in political science. In the early 1980s, he became a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa, where he learned to speak Afrikaans. After returning to the United States, Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute, before being elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives from Arizona’s 1st congressional district in 2001. He served as the representative for the 1st district until renumbering following the 2000 census redefined the district to be Arizona’s 6th congressional district, which he then represented until he entered the Senate in 2013.
Flake sought the Republican nomination for the 2012 Senate election after incumbent Jon Kyl announced his retirement. He defeated Democratic candidate and former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona in the general election.
Flake was one of the bipartisan