Former GOP Communications Director Casts Vote for Biden: 'Country Over Party'

A former communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced on Twitter that he decided to cast his vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden instead of President Donald Trump.

On Monday, Ryan Mahoney posted a photo on Twitter of a ballot that had the oval for Biden filled in. "Proud to vote country over party," Mahoney said in the tweet. "Proud to vote for @JoeBiden."

The RNC introduced Mahoney in 2011 as one of the committee's regional press secretaries for the 2012 election cycle. Before joining the RNC, Mahoney worked as a communications and political director with the Maryland Republican Party and also worked for the Wisconsin Republican Party as a field director in 2008 and 2009.

On Twitter, Mahoney identifies himself as a former GOP communications director and senior adviser. Though his Twitter feed shows he has not been active on the platform over the past two years, he began retweeting content critical of Trump in the past few weeks. This included a critique from Utah Senator Mitt Romney of Trump's "unwillingness" to denounce conspiracy theories and an opinion article published by The Washington Post that slammed the Trump campaign and the Republican Party for their involvement this year in court cases dealing with voting.

Mahoney posted a link to the opinion article on Sunday, along with an excerpt that accused Trump's campaign and the GOP of trying to limit voter participation. Mahoney announced his decision to vote for Biden one day later.

Mahoney made his decision public with fewer than 24 hours remaining until Election Day. Though Biden is favored to win in most national and battleground state polls, some political experts have said that those polls could be overlooking "shy" Trump voters, as pollsters did four years ago when Hillary Clinton was predicted to win in a landslide victory.

Trump has campaigned heavily, hosting in-person rallies attended by thousands of supporters, while Biden elected to host virtual and drive-in events because of the coronavirus pandemic. While Robert Cahaly, one of the few pollsters to predict Trump's victory in 2016, recently told Newsweek that he believes support for Trump is stronger now than it was four years ago, some Republicans have made concerted efforts this year through initiatives like the Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump to discourage members of their party from endorsing the president.

In several of the Lincoln Project's call-to-action videos, its founders have called upon voters to put country over party, using the same phrase Mahoney had in his tweet.

"All across America, something incredible is happening: Republicans are putting country over party, and backing Joe Biden for president," the project announced in one video posted on its social media pages over the summer.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.