One of the signature Never Trump Republican groups is launching its first campaign since President Donald Trump’s election, aimed at urging the administration to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The group published more than 60 direct testimonials on Thursday morning, shared exclusively with NOTUS, from lifelong Republicans speaking out against Trump’s current position on Ukraine.
“I voted for Trump. I was hoping for the lesser of two evils, and I’m not sure I got what I wanted,” Bruce, a Utah Republican who like many others in the campaign only gave their first name, said in his testimonial video. “For years we’ve been the leader of democracy, and Trump wants to surrender that.”
Republicans for Ukraine is part of a broader advocacy group led by Bulwark leaders Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller. Ahead of the 2024 election, the group ran advertising campaigns across battleground states and issued a report card grading GOP Congress members on their voting record on Ukraine.
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The new campaign also includes former Republican lawmakers, including former Rep. Steve Gunderson.
“It never entered my mind that anybody, certainly not a Republican president, would be an apologist for Putin and for Russia,” Gunderson said in his testimonial.
The new campaign comes at a particularly sensitive time for Ukraine’s future. Trump recently met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Pope Francis’ funeral, their first meeting since a tense Oval Office summit during which Vice President JD Vance and Trump pushed Zelenskyy to thank them and to accept a peace deal that Ukraine had rejected. The current deal offers limited security guarantees, would force Ukraine to abandon efforts to join NATO and would give up its claim over the Crimean Peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day unilateral ceasefire beginning in May, which Zelenskyy called “another attempt at manipulation.”
Republicans for Ukraine is trying to make the case that sticking by Ukraine is a specifically Republican position.
“There are still Republicans and conservatives out there who understand that standing with our international allies is the right thing to do,” Longwell, the group’s executive director, said in a statement on the launch shared with NOTUS.
One of those Republicans in the campaign, Barry Adams of Alabama, served as a civilian at the NATO liaison office to Ukraine under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In his video, he called for Republicans to be the party of “moral clarity.”
“I keep asking myself, when did we Republicans become the party of dictators and appeasement?” Adams said. “It’s really shameful to see.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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