Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) will vote for Libertarian presidential nominee and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson in November, taking a formal pass on backing his party’s nominee, Donald Trump.
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In an interview Friday, Rigell swore he would choose third-party candidate Gary Johnson over his own party’s pick for President.
Rigell told the New York Times that he’s been advising his fellow Republicans to condemn Trump’s remarks when they disagree with him.
Rigell, who began serving in Congress in 2011, will be retiring at the end of his current term. The Times said he is the first sitting Republican in Congress to announce his support for Johnson, though NY U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton earlier this week.
Rigell said he also can not vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton because, he says, “she has continually deceived the American people, and she is unfit to be commander-in-chief”.
“I’m going to vote for the Libertarian candidate”.
Later in the week, Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger also said he wouldn’t back Trump.
Johnson also ran for the White House in 2012, collecting 1% of the national vote. Coffman has yet to declare his support for any candidate.
The congressman said that he is still a Republican, but told the Times that if the Republican party aligned with Trump more closely, he would become an independent.
Currently, Johnson has polled in the upper single digits, a far cry from staking a legitimate claim as a contender, but potentially enough to play spoiler to Trump in closely contested battleground states.
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The announcement follows Rigell’s scathing Facebook post earlier this week in which Rigell questioned if Trump is even worthy of the title, “Mister”.
