“I love my country more than my party,” said Stephanie Grisham, a former Tucson resident and one of Donald Trump’s “closest advisers” in the White House, as she endorsed Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.
Grisham said on stage at the DNC in Chicago: “Kamala Harris tells the truth, respects the American people and she has my vote.”
Earlier this month, Grisham – who served as a spokeswoman during Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and for almost his entire tenure in the White House – joined a group of “Republicans for Harris” supporting the Democratic presidential candidate.
On Tuesday, she described herself as a “true believer” and “one of his closest advisers” who spent the holidays with the Trump family.
“Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters,” she said. “He calls them basement dwellers.”
“He has no compassion, no morals, no loyalty to the truth,” said the Republican president’s former advisers. “If you say it often enough, they’ll believe you,” Grisham said of Trump.
Grisham pointed out that during her time as White House spokeswoman, she was criticized for never holding a press conference.
“Unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at the podium and lie,” she said.
“I may not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy, and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage,” Grisham said in a statement the group released earlier this month.
Grisham, who began her political career in Arizona, was involved in Trump’s first presidential campaign starting in May 2016 and began working in his administration after his victory in the 2016 election, serving both the president and the first lady, eventually rising to press secretary and communications director.
Grisham resigned from her post, then Melania Trump’s chief of staff, effective immediately following the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters smashed windows and smashed doors to stop the counting of electoral votes for Joe Biden.
Now the former Trump spokeswoman in the White House is supporting his Democratic opponent Harris.
The group of Republicans announced by the Harris for President campaign in early August includes Grisham, former Cabinet Secretaries Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood, former Governors Christine Todd Whitman, Bill Weld and Jim Edgar, numerous former members of Congress such as Adam Kinzinger, Susan Molinari and Denver Riggleman, and Mesa Mayor John Giles.
Giles was also scheduled to speak at the DNC on Tuesday evening. Kinzinger is also scheduled to speak there.
“There is nothing ‘conservative’ about Donald Trump. Conservatives believe in the Constitution, not the ego of a ‘man,'” Kinzinger tweeted. “I support American democracy and the future today, and leave the past behind. I support @KamalaHarris.”
Grisham has served in numerous roles for Trump. She has worked in the White House since the beginning of Trump’s term and was appointed his press secretary and communications director in May 2019, replacing Sarah Huckabee Sanders. During her one-year tenure in the position, she did not hold a single press conference.
Grisham, a former Republican press secretary in Arizona who worked on Trump’s presidential campaign and then, controversially, was paid by taxpayers here while working on Trump’s transition team, was appointed the first lady’s chief spokeswoman in March 2017.
Disagreements with Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, led her to leave the West Wing in spring 2020 and return to the East Wing to work for the First Lady’s office again.
In 2018, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel – an investigative agency unrelated to the work of special counsel Robert Mueller – found that Grisham had violated the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using taxpayer money to fund campaigns. Grisham tweeted Trump’s political slogan “#MAGA” (“Make America Great Again”) from her official account and received a warning letter.
Grisham served as Republican spokeswoman in the Arizona State Legislature after spending several years as press secretary for the state’s Attorney General, Tom Horne.
Grishman was named “Best PR Person” at the State Capitol by the Arizona Capitol Times in 2015 when she demonstrated her sense of humor about her work with a video parody.
The following year, she did not endear herself to reporters when she pushed through an attempt by then-House Speaker David Gowan to bar journalists from entering the House unless they submitted to background checks. Gowan was targeting Hank Stephenson of the Cap Times, who had investigated Gowan’s improper use of state vehicles on the campaign trail. Following Stephenson’s report, Gowan was ordered to repay taxpayers $12,000.
Gowan’s move, announced as a “security measure,” was condemned and ridiculed by the press, and he backtracked a few days later.
Grisham was embroiled in political scandals while working for Horne. Horne was accused of improperly collaborating with the head of the group Business Leaders of Arizona during his 2010 campaign. Those charges were thrown out when the Arizona Supreme Court found that his due process rights had been violated by Yavapai County District Attorney Sheila Polk during the investigation.
During Horne’s 2014 re-election campaign, Grisham worked in his government office and as a campaign staffer — while doing political work for taxpayers on the side. Horne was fined $10,000 by the Clean Elections Commission for the violations he committed in his lost election, but another government investigation into the matter was closed after a three-year investigation.
Prior to her series of government jobs, she served as a spokesperson for AAA Arizona beginning in 2007 and also worked for the Arizona Charter Schools Association.
Grisham divorced her ex-husband, Dan Marries, anchor of KOLD Channel 13, in 2004. She then married Todd Grisham, a KOLD sports reporter who later worked as an announcer for Fox Sports and ESPN. They divorced in 2006.
She began working for the Trump campaign in May 2016, after the legislature adjourned.
After Trump’s election, Grisham first worked on the future president’s transition team and then as deputy press secretary. On March 27, 2017, she was appointed “Special Assistant to the President” and Communications Director to the First Lady.
After the 2020 election, Grisham reportedly texted a lobbyist saying the rumors of voter fraud were false.
As CNN reported, Grisham submitted her resignation on the evening of the January 6 insurrection, after a day of clashes in which a woman was shot in the Capitol and pro-Trump rioters broke into the House and Senate chambers. Members of both bodies and Vice President Mike Pence were forced to seek shelter in secure rooms.
The hours-long riot, which Pence called “unprecedented violence and vandalism” and which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called a “failed insurrection,” interrupted the counting of electoral votes to formally complete the election of Biden, who will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20. Lawmakers met again later that night to resume the process of recognizing Biden’s victory.
