Racicot, 72, shared the revelation in an interview with Brian Kahn, host of Home Ground, broadcast Tuesday evening on Yellowstone Public Radio. He offered up no specific praise for former Vice President Biden, but spoke of qualities such as patience, decency and openness to contrary opinion, qualities Racicot suggested are absent in the Trump administration, as the reason for voting against the Republican president.
"I regret that I will cause consternation perhaps in some corners, but even as a Republican, I will not be supporting Donald Trump for president, and I will not be voting for him," Racicot said. "That means I will be voting for Joe Biden for president. … I'm not going to march lockstep with him every step of the way or with the administration. I'll have disagreements, I'm certain. But the content of a man's character or a woman's character to serve in that capacity is more important than any other issue that I have to consider as a matter of conscience."
Racicot is not the only Montana Republican to reject the Trump-bearing GOP. In July, former Secretary of State and state Senate President Bob Brown penned a guest column in the Missoulian, his own "Declaration of independence from the Republican Party."
"For over 70 years, I've considered myself a Republican," Brown wrote. "But after watching Trump's consistently ignorant and irresponsible leadership, I've concluded that in good conscience, I can't remain a member of the party he has taken over."
While perhaps more sharp in his concerns during Tuesday's interview, Racicot penned a similar call in 2016 in an op-ed published in the Washington Post under the headline, "Americans can choose better than Trump."
"In 2016 I made it very plain, in July … I couldn't vest my confidence in Donald Trump," he said Tuesday. "And I don't intend to vest that confidence in Donald Trump today because I have even more grave doubts than I did in 2016."