"This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties," Sally Bradshaw said. Top Jeb Bush adviser to vote Clinton 'if the race in Florida is close'

Sally Bradshaw has left the Republican Party and will vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton if the race in her home state of Florida “is close,” Jeb Bush’s longtime ally and 2016 campaign adviser told CNN on Monday.

“This election cycle is a test,” Bradshaw said, according to the report. “As much as I don’t want another four years of [President Barack] Obama’s policies, I can’t look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump. I can’t tell them to love their neighbor and treat others the way they wanted to be treated, and then vote for Donald Trump. I won’t do it.”


Bradshaw worked as Jeb Bush’s gubernatorial campaign manager in the 1994 election, which he lost, serving in the same capacity for his victorious 1998 effort. The former governor himself has said that he will support neither Trump nor Clinton in the general election, while both former presidents Bush have said they are sitting out this campaign.

“If the race in Florida is close, I will vote for Hillary Clinton,” Bradshaw told CNN’s Jamie Gangel. “That is a very difficult statement for me to make. I disagree with her on several important issues. I have worked to elect Republicans to national and statewide offices for the last 30 years. I have never voted for a Democrat for president, and I consider myself a conservative, a supporter of limited government, gun rights, free enterprise, equality of opportunity. I am pro-life. There are no other candidates who were serious contenders for the nomination that I would not have supported.”

Despite those qualms, Bradshaw said the GOP is “at a crossroads and have nominated a total narcissist — a misogynist — a bigot.”

“This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties,” Bradshaw said. “Donald Trump cannot be elected president.”

Bradshaw confirmed to POLITICO that she has recently re-registered with no party affiliation in Florida.

Bradshaw was a co-author of the Republican Party’s post-2012 “autopsy” report, which argued that the primary lesson of Mitt Romney’s defeat was that the GOP needed to adjust its policies and rhetoric to appeal to Hispanic-Americans.

Former Ted Cruz spokesman Ron Nehring called Bradshaw’s move a “mistake” and warned that Republicans leaving the party over Trump should reconsider.

In a multi-part tweetstorm, Nehring, who also served as chairman of the Cruz campaign in California, pointed to the importance of local political involvement.

“Why’d you let unions take over city council? ‘Because I'm mad about Trump’ is a poor answer,” wrote Nehring, after Cruz caused a firestorm at the Republican National Convention for telling Americans to “vote your conscience.”

Nehring added, “Help conservatives on the ballot.”

Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report.