Over 100 Republicans, including former elected officials, are planning to release a letter threatening to create a third party, according to reports.
The threat to create the third party comes if Republicans do not change course and break with former President Donald Trump, according to Reuters.
The preamble of the letter, which is titled “A Call For American Renewal,” reads, “When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice,” according to The New York Times.
The letter is expected to be released on Thursday, the Times reports. The discussion of creating the anti-Trump third party came back in February.
Miles Taylor, an organizer and a former Trump-era Department of Homeland Security official, told Reuters, “The Republican Party is broken. It’s time for a resistance of the ‘rationals’ against the ‘radicals.'”
He also told the Times, “This is a first step,” adding, “This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option.”
Taylor shared that the group of Republicans include those who were once at the state and federal levels, including former governors, lawmakers, ambassadors, and more.
According to the Times, Taylor declared that he is “still a Republican,” but, “I’m hanging on by the skin of my teeth because how quickly the party has divorced itself from truth and reason.”
He continued, “I’m one of those in the group that feels very strongly that if we can’t get the G.O.P. back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people, I’m out and a lot of people are coming with me.”
