PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A former Republican senator from Arizona is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the race for the White House heats up with less than 40 days until Election Day.

The politician and former CBS News contributor announced his support for the vice president on Twitter early Saturday and discussed his support at length in an interview with a Phoenix newspaper.

Flake portrays Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, as candidates who believe in the rule of law, respect the will of voters and base their leadership “not on grievances of the past, but on hope for the future.”

In his statement, the Republican indicated criticism of Trump’s foreign policy. It’s no secret that he is one of Trump’s most prominent critics in the Republican Party. Flake’s book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” was largely a criticism of the former president.

“As I have spent the last three years abroad as U.S. Ambassador, I have seen firsthand that we have very real enemies abroad. We also have important and indispensable allies,” Flake said. “I want to support a presidential candidate who understands and values ​​difference.”

He concludes: “After all, in times like these, there is nothing more conservative than putting country over party.”

Flake is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With 450,000 members in Arizona, Harris is working to win the support of these traditionally Republican voters.

She will need it. New polls suggest Trump is gaining momentum in swing states along the Sun Belt.

In Arizona, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll shows Trump leading Harris by about 6% in a survey of likely voters. A Fox News poll shows a smaller but still significant margin of about 3%.

This is a big change from previous polls that showed Harris with a sizable and distant lead when she replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee.

Data from AP VoteCast shows that in 2020, about 7 in 10 Mormon voters nationwide supported Trump, while about a quarter supported Democrat Joe Biden.

Flake retired from the Senate at the end of his term in 2019, saying he was out of step with the Republican Party in the Trump era.

In 2020, Flake was one of over two dozen former GOP lawmakers who endorsed Biden as part of the Republicans for Biden group. The former senator most recently served as US ambassador to Turkey after being nominated by Biden and later confirmed by the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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