A retired Marine three-star general and a Republican ex-congressman from Connecticut visited Pittsburgh Tuesday to stump for Vice President Kamala Harris and portray her rival, Donald Trump, as a threat to the U.S. Constitution.

Retired Lt. Gen. Richard L. Kelly, a Pittsburgh native and Penn State University graduate, and former GOP Rep. Chris Shays endorsed the Democratic nominee during a press conference at a Harris campaign office in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood.

“Our objective is to defeat Donald Trump and make sure he doesn’t return to the White House,” said Kelly, who was joined by two dozen former national security personnel.

Kelly, who was born in Shadyside and grew up in Wilkinsburg, said Harris has shown a steady hand and is the obvious choice to be the next commander in chief.

Kelly and Shays were among 700 signatories last month of a bipartisan letter from retired national security leaders who are supporting Harris over Trump, the nation’s 45th president who is seeking a return to the Oval Office.

Kelly took aim at Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed conservative blueprint for a Republican presidency that Trump has disavowed and Democrats have pilloried.

“Trump’s Project 2025 would give him virtually unchecked power,” Kelly said, noting Trump’s previous comments about being a dictator on “day one” and using the Justice Department to target his political enemies.

“Typically, national security leaders don’t get involved in politics. This year is different. We know just how damaging a second Trump term would be to our nation, and we are working every single day to ensure that Donald Trump never steps foot in the Oval Office again,” Kelly said.

Trump has denied association with Project 2025 and has called the blueprint “extreme.”

Dozens of people in Trump’s circle are connected to Project 2025 — at least 140, according to CNN.

Kelly, who is a registered independent, said he and Shays were part of a three-day swing through several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Shays, a moderate Republican, served as a representative from Connecticut for over 20 years, working on the Homeland Security committee. He was the first congressman to enter Iraq after the war broke out there in 2003.

He said no one who attacks the Constitution should serve in public office again.

Shays, a longtime Trump critic, joins other Republicans who have publicly backed Harris, most notably former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman who played an instrumental role in the Democrat-led House hearings into the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Liz Cheney campaigned with Harris in Wisconsin last week.

Shays endorsed Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

Kush Desai, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania, dismissed the support from Kelly, Shays and those who signed the bipartisan letter.

“It’s hard to take national security ‘experts’ seriously when they’re advocating for another four years of Kamala Harris – who’s presided over outright war in the Middle East and Europe along with an open border that’s let terror suspects, transnational criminals, and tens of millions of other unvetted migrants walk right into our country – over a return to the historic peace and stability that Americans and the world enjoyed during the first Trump administration,” Desai said.

Harris has been seeing increased support from Republican voters, according to a New York Times/Siena College national poll released Tuesday.

The nationwide poll said 9% of registered Republicans said they plan to vote for Harris, which is up from 5% in the last poll taken in mid September.

The Tuesday NYT/Siena poll shows national voters prefer Harris by 49% to 46% for former President Donald Trump. The September poll had the candidates tied at 47% each.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)