By JADE TRAN
WASHINGTON – In the depths of the ocean, a young submarine officer spent his part of the Cold War on the USS Bluefish (SSN-675), a Sturgeon-class fast-attack submarine built to track and sink Soviet ballistic missile subs.
That officer was John Ronning, now 71, of Baltimore. A self-described lifelong Republican, he’s one of five Marylanders featured in Republicans for Ukraine, a national coalition launched by Defending Democracy Together, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by prominent conservatives, including William Kristol and Mona Charen.
“I felt like I played a small part in bringing down the Berlin Wall and setting the captive nations free, including Ukraine,” Ronning said. “So it’s kind of extremely upsetting to see my party standing in the way and saying, ‘We don’t care what Russia does to Ukraine,’ after we helped to get them their freedom.”
Launched in 2023, Republicans for Ukraine is part of an umbrella group that also leads projects such as Republicans for Voting Rights and Republicans for the Rule of Law. It spotlights GOP voters who still support U.S. aid to Ukraine and back the country’s fight against Russia — a stance increasingly rare within the party.
The project’s website features video testimonials from Republicans and conservatives across the country, along with report cards that grade House GOP members from “A” to “F,” based on their support for Ukraine.
The website’s front page statement reads: “The GOP was once a proud defender of freedom and democracy. We are amplifying the voices of Republicans who still believe that the United States should be a steadfast friend to democracies like Ukraine — and a fearsome opponent of aggressive dictatorships like Russia.”
Jim Naylor, a Marine Corps veteran and former aviation radio technician from Baltimore, is featured in a video titled “Jim is a Republican for Ukraine.” He sits in front of a camera and, in just under three minutes, speaks with quiet conviction about his unwavering support for the embattled nation.
Naylor grew up as a Republican, with a family deeply committed to the party; there was no doubt that he would follow suit. He was attracted to the party’s support for free trade, the rule of law and fiscal conservatism.
“It was 2016 when I started being disaffected with the Republican Party,” Naylor said. In his view, the values he had once stood for had vanished. “There’s nothing left of the Republican Party.”
His political break became public in 2019.
That year, Republican Voters Against Trump put out a call for former Donald Trump voters who no longer stood behind the president. Naylor said he heard the call on a podcast and felt he fit the bill. He submitted a testimonial — although he describes it more as a confessional — in which he felt he had to atone behind a camera for his past vote.
More recently, the Republican Party’s approach to the war in Ukraine and rhetoric from leaders like Trump has widened the ideological split, according to GOP backers of Ukraine.
In February, during a televised Oval Office meeting, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “You’re playing cards. You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.” Vice President J.D. Vance, seated nearby, asked Zelensky if he said “thank you” to Trump even once during the meeting.
The ambush stunned much of the political world and foreign policy experts said the incident reflected Trump’s continuing refusal to hold Putin to account for his invasion of Ukraine.
Naylor said political discussions with his family, some of whom lean more toward the “Make America Great Again” movement, are now off-limits. “Everything becomes a culture war,” he said, adding that even casual mentions of pop star Taylor Swift can spark tension with extended family, since his kids are fans and Swift publicly supported former Vice President Kamala Harris on Instagram.
Ronning recalled that in the 1980s, the term “neo-conservative,” or “neo-con,” referred to Democrats who thought their party was too soft on communism and shifted right to support then-President Ronald Reagan’s efforts to win the Cold War.
Today, he said, the term has taken on a new, distorted meaning, often used by Trump-aligned conservatives to mock or condemn anyone who supports U.S. involvement overseas.
“It’s used almost like a swear word. It’s like, ‘You’re a Nazi,’ Ronning said.
A self-described “Reagan Republican,” Ronning’s admiration for that president stretches back to 1968, when he first saw him during his first, brief presidential campaign. Ronning was 14 years old then.
“To me, it was a no-brainer,” Ronning said. “Communists had no conscience about killing people by the millions,” and since then, he’s been anti-Russia.
That early worldview shaped his decision to enter military service.
While Ronning was aboard the Bluefish at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Reagan delivered a stirring speech directed at people living under communism. The president said: “And to every person trapped in tyranny, whether in the Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, or Vietnam, we send our love and support and tell them they are not alone.”
The difference between Reagan’s GOP and Trump’s party, Ronning said, is stark.
For Naylor, the case for helping Ukraine feels like common sense.
“I feel like history is in front of us — a moral crossroads,” Naylor said. “We can be on the side of the underdog or not.”
Naylor said only a fraction of the U.S. defense budget — “pennies on the dollar,” in his words — is needed to help Ukraine fight what he calls “a real enemy, not an invisible one.”
“They’re not asking for our sons and daughters to go over there and bleed for them,” Naylor said. “They’re just asking for the fight, for like 1% of our annual defense budget.”
Disillusioned with the GOP’s new direction, Naylor now identifies more as a moderate Democrat, although he says he still holds Republican principles.
Ronning, meanwhile, considers himself a constitutional conservative — and is sticking with the party he fell in love with at 14 under Reagan.
Supporters from 46 states and D.C. have added their voices to the Republicans for Ukraine website, united by one message: Ukraine needs support.
“??Vladimir Putin is an enemy of the United States, and should be treated as such. Supporting Ukraine is in the best interests of our country and the best traditions of the Republican Party,” the website states. “Just because Trump has switched sides, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to.”
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