To my republican friends who know that Trump stands against everything you believe in:

If Donald Trump becomes president, you will likely never see anything that closely resembles a party of which you can be proud for the foreseeable future. Your party will be in the hands of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and Islamophobic authoritarians and there will be no place for you or your values.

You are the republicans who would have liked to have seen someone like John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, or Marco Rubio be the republican nominee. I know some of you have already made the decision to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for the good of the country even though you have serious reservations about her. I also know that many of you are either not voting for president or voting for the Libertarian candidate for president, Gary Johnson.

If you are one of those republicans not voting for Trump, but you can’t see yourself voting for Clinton, I encourage you to reconsider. Any non vote or third party vote on the part of those opposing Trump does not fully oppose Trump. The inescapable reality is that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be our next president, and Trump’s best chance of winning is if many people decide to not vote at all or decide to vote third party. After this week’s debate, I even hope that some of you who were planning to vote for Trump while holding your nose will now also consider voting for Clinton. 

Secretary Clinton needs a broad coalition of the sane to win this election. She needs everyone who cares about the stability of our country to vote for her. I know you saw the debate. I know you know Trump is not stable enough to be President of the United States and that he will do great damage at home and abroad. You know that he lies at sociopathic levels, treats women with great disrespect, divides our country along racial and religious lines, is deeply ignorant about the nuances of foreign policy, and exhibits dangerous megalomaniac and authoritarian behavior. You can’t deny it. Perhaps you hope that if he becomes president that somehow Congress will control him, but you know that history teaches us a different lesson.

Today, I am asking you to please be a part of the broad coalition of the sane who will vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton to become the next President of the United States of America. Your country needs you. The world needs you. Voting for Clinton does not make you a liberal or mean that you agree with her or even like her. It is simply the best defense against the most dangerous and unstable candidate for president we have seen in our lifetimes.