(CNN) Doug Elmets' home sits as a proud time capsule to his Reagan-era roots: Framed pictures adorn the walls of a 21-year-old Elmets gripping the hand of his political hero, President Ronald Reagan; a two-foot tall bronze statue of the 40th President sits on an end table; his signed letter of congratulations to Elmets and his wife, both former White House staffers, hangs in the bookshelf surrounded by nonfiction books written by Republicans.

The Elmets of the Reagan era would never have predicted what he's now saying about the 2016 presidential race.

"I've never voted for a Democrat in my entire life. And I'll vote for my first Democrat when the ballots come out in November," said Elmets, who remains a registered Republican. "I could live with four years of Hillary Clinton before I could ever live with one day of Donald Trump as president."

It's an astonishing statement for the Republican consultant and former operative who began his career as a White House staff assistant to conservative powerhouses Ed Rollins and Lee Atwater in 1981 at the dawn of the Reagan administration.

Elmets became a White House spokesman under long-time presidential adviser David Gergen and then moved onto the campaign trail for Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign. He later served as press secretary for the Department of Energy until he moved to California to work in public relations, policy and political consulting.

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