After continuing to hold an average seven-point lead over Donald Trump in the polls, Hillary Clinton is now openly canvassing for Republican defectors.
The Democratic nominee has launched Together for America, which aims to recruit the "growing number of Republicans and Independents who are stepping forward to endorse Hillary Clinton for president".
She has already received the backing of a number of high-profile GOP members in recent days, including national security figures, former Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress past and present. Major Republican donor Harry Sloan is trying to help the Democrat recruit others from his party, while Doug Elmets, a former spokesman in the Reagan White House, has also become a "Clinton Republican".
Elmets told USA Today that he made the decision the day Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.
"I think that Donald Trump has hijacked the Republican party. It is no longer really the Republican party, it is the party of Trump," he said.
Real Clear Politics gives Clinton an average 7.7 point lead, with individual polls putting her up to 15 points ahead. Pollster Nate Silver gives her an 85.2 per cent chance of winning, compared to Trump's 14.8 per cent.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said her "experience and temperament make her a steady leader for this unique moment while Donald Trump is unfit, lacks the temperament and is too dangerous to be in the Oval Office".
- Washington Post