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Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday she is “proudly” casting her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin, invoking the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and voicing her support for the Democratic presidential nominee in the crucial battleground state.

“I’m telling you, I’ve never voted for a Democrat, but this year I’m proud to cast my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney said at a Harris campaign event in Ripon, Wisconsin. In an effort to sway swing voters, she pointed to former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, declaring that anyone “who would do these things can never be trusted with power again.”

“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol, allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and abused in his name, and violate the law and the Constitution to seize power for himself,” Cheney said as the audience of the event cheered. “I don’t care if you’re Democrat, Republican or Independent, that’s depravity and we should never become numb to it.”

The campaign event is the former Wyoming congressman’s latest attempt to sway undecided voters away from Donald Trump with less than five weeks until Election Day. Cheney, who previously told CNN she was determined to do what was necessary to prevent the former president from returning to the White House, announced last month that she would vote for Harris in North Carolina, another battleground state. She has said she expected to campaign against Trump in battleground states.

At Thursday’s campaign event in Ripon — home to a schoolhouse known as the birthplace of the Republican Party — Harris made a direct appeal to Republican and independent voters.

“If people across Wisconsin and our country are willing to do what Liz is doing to stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals and the Constitution of the United States, then I know that together we can chart a new path forward. as members of any party, but as Americans,” she said.

When Cheney appeared with Harris in Wisconsin, Trump slammed the former congresswoman on Fox News, calling out her loss to a Trump-backed primary challenger in 2022.

“Well, Liz Cheney lost for Congress. She was terrible. Liz Cheney is a stupid war hawk, all she wants to do is shoot missiles at people. I really think it hurts. I honestly think that as Kamala – I think they hurt each other. I think they’re both so bad,” Trump said.

Cheney’s zealous opposition to Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — including her vote to impeach him — ultimately led the Republican Party to oust her as conference chair and replace her with a top Trump ally, the New York Representative Elise Stefanik. Cheney subsequently became vice chairman of the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Asked for comment on Cheney’s decision to appear with Harris, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt pointed CNN to an August 2020 social media post from the Wyoming Republican, shortly after Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate .

“@KamalaHarris has a more liberal voting record than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Her radical left views — raising taxes, banning gun sales, tax dollars for abortion and health care for illegal immigrants, abolishing private health insurance — would be devastating to America,” Cheney wrote on August 12, 2020.

Cheney said in September that she had serious political differences with Harris on a variety of issues, but chose to support her this year because she believes that “those of us who believe in defending our democracy, in defending our constitution and the survival of our republic has an obligation in this election cycle to come together and put these issues above politics.”

A slew of Republicans have backed the vice president in her bid to defeat Trump and urged members of the Republican Party to cross party lines, including Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney; former Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger; former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan; and former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide who gave impressive testimony to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, on Wednesday became the latest high-profile Republican to publicly endorse Harris, telling MSNBC: “The character of our leaders really matters. ”

Cheney has long tried to combat Trump’s influence in elections. During the 2022 midterm elections, the political action committee she founded ran an ad urging Arizona voters to reject Republican Party gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Republican secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem. She also crossed party lines that year to defeat two moderate Democrats in competitive House races.

The campaign’s efforts to win over Republican voters will extend beyond the Cheney event.

Thursday’s campaign stop will be the start of a host of other events in the coming days aimed at appealing to voters disenchanted with Trump and particularly concerned about defending the Constitution, a Harris campaign official said. Other events will be held in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Harris-Walz is spending significant money in this area as part of a more than seven-figure paid media strategy, the campaign official said. While Trump’s team has former Democrats as surrogates, there is no organized “Democrats for Trump” equivalent.

Republicans for Harris’ outreach will also shoot a new economy-focused ad featuring direct on-camera testimony from a two-time Trump voter about how Trump would make the economy worse for people like him, the campaign official said. The “Has Our Backs” ad, first shared with CNN, is part of the campaign’s $370 million ad reservations between Labor Day and Election Day and will run on digital platforms including YouTube TV.

“We know these are votes we must earn, and we will continue to do our best every day to win over the millions of Republicans who are willing to turn the page on Donald Trump’s chaos, extremism and divisiveness.” Austin Weatherford, national Republican outreach director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in a statement.

Not all Democrats think this is the best strategy.

Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, the first Muslim woman elected to the body, has been vocal on social media about the problems she sees with the Harris team, which relies on the support of prominent Republicans like Cheney.

“It feels like the campaign is still trying to run a Biden campaign, and it’s doing Harris a huge disservice,” she wrote on X.

“Republicans are not going to save us, and touting their support turns people off,” Romman said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Alayna Treene, Veronica Stracqualursi and Ebony Davis contributed to this report.