Liz Cheney’s speech in Wisconsin endorsing and promising to vote for Vice President Harris was both powerful and courageous. Ms. Cheney and her father, who was vice president under George W. Bush are quintessential conservative Republicans whose ideals and policies align in a direction nearly diametrically opposed to Harris. But they both agree on an area that is far more important: their values. Serving as the vice chair of the January 6 Committee, Liz Cheney had direct, first-hand evidence of Donald Trump’s abandonment of his oath of office. She was also aware that his sexual assault and felony convictions were acts of justice, not political revenge as the former president would have us believe.

It couldn’t have been easy for Ms. Cheney to stand at the birthplace of the Republican Party and announce that she would vote for a Democrat for president for the first time in her life. Perhaps she drew her inspiration from the former Whigs who met in Ripon to form a political party that valued American democracy and the Constitution above personal gain and party pettiness. Unlike other Republican leaders who are willing to discard their integrity to gain political office by supporting a self-serving election denier, Ms. Cheney paid a heavy price for keeping traditional Republican values and principles. If only more Republican candidates prioritized the traditional conservative values of democracy and country over loyalty to a convicted felon. Liz Cheney has the courage of her convictions. Donald Trump just has convictions.

James Fieseher

Dover