Of those, 20,685 have come from Republicans, while 16,338 have come from Democrats. Nearly 47,000 ballots have been cast by voters with no party affiliation.
Republicans have voted early in person about 71% more than Democrats, and the numbers are close in mail-in ballots through Tuesday (9,558 Democrats, 9,082 Republicans).
Heading into the start of early voting nearly a month ago, Democrats had a lead over Republicans in ballot requests for the first time since no-fault early voting started in 2006.
Experts say that doesn’t mean all Republicans are voting to re-elect President Donald Trump. Though the GOP has a strong base supporting conservative candidates, there’s a growing list of prominent Republicans who say that have or will vote for Biden, including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, former Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
That list also includes dozens of former Trump administration officials, such as Miles Taylor, who resigned in November 2019 as the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security chief of staff. He spoke last week in southwest Ohio and revealed himself Wednesday as “Anonymous,” the writer of a New York Times column and book critical of Trump in 2018.
Taylor formed Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform and is involved with Republican Voters Against Trump. Taylor’s “breaking point” to leave the administration was when he said the president “offered to trade a pardon for us (DHS senior officials) to do illegal activities."
"I was like, ‘There’s no more good we can do here. We got to get out,’” said Taylor, who previously worked for then-Vice President Dick Cheney and on Capitol Hill.
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Taylor said he and other senior officials were “hopeful that the weight of the office would sober him,” but instead he said President Trump became “drunk with power.”
“On a daily basis, the president’s behavior was just disruptive in the most basic way," Taylor said. "Your calendar and knowing what you were going to do that day was blown up by his impetuousness.”
Butler County GOP Executive Chairman Todd Hall dismissed Taylor’s push against Trump, saying we are in an “era of political grandstanding and personal agendas” and “it is very difficult to put any credence on former officials, most who just want to create enough chaos to sell their upcoming book.”
Taylor’s interview and Hall’s comments came before he revealed himself as “Anonymous.”
“Citizens should base their decisions on real results, not hearsay of discarded former staff. Based on results, President Trump more than deserves a second term,” Hall said.
Butler County Democratic Executive Chairman Brian Hester said people should heed the number of lifelong Republicans and former Trump officials backing a Democratic presidential candidate, many for the first time.
“These are lifelong Republicans who enacted his policies and publicly defended and yet, felt the need to warn the country of both Trump’s corruption and incompetence,” Hester said.
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