Meet the first Republican congressman to announce he's voting for Hillary over Trump

A Republican congressman from New York announced Tuesday that he will vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump in November—making him the first GOP member of Congress to officially abandon his party in the upcoming election.

Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., wrote in an essay for the Syracuse Post-Standard that the Republican presidential candidate was “unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country.”

“While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton,” Hanna wrote. “I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing.”

Hanna had previously said that he could never support Trump, and told Syracuse.com that the candidate’s reaction to the now-famous speech by Khizr Khan at the Democratic National Convention was the final straw in convincing him to vote for Clinton.

“I saw that and felt incensed,” Hanna told Syracuse.com. “I was stunned by the callousness of his comments.”

The three-term congressman from upstate New York has long been a member of the moderate wing of his party, voting against cuts to Planned Parenthood and supporting same-sex marriage. He doesn’t have to worry too much about fallout from the decision as he is not running for re-election in November.

GOP ambivalence over Trump is nothing new, with many leaders offering non-endorsements or no-comments, but now some are actively looking to Hillary.

Bush family adviser Sally Bradshaw told CNN Tuesday she was leaving the party and might vote for Clinton. And a Hinckley Institute-Salt Lake Tribune poll of Utah voters found that Clinton was leading Trump in the usually-solid red state by one point.

There has been no response from Trump yet on Hanna’s decision, but given how the man normally takes criticism, there’s probably a gale force tweetstorm on the horizon.