Two-time Donald Trump voter from Alabama joins ‘Business Leaders for Harris’ group

An Alabama businessman who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and told the 2024 Democratic National Convention that he is going to cast his ballot for Kamala Harris has joined the newly launched “Business Leaders for Harris” group.

Kyle Sweetser, a general contractor from Mobile, cut a video for the group which seeks to persuade businesspeople and conservatives into voting for Harris and whose members include billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.

“My name’s Kyle. I’m from Alabama. I’m a two-time Trump voter. I’m a business owner and I’m voting for Kamala Harris,” Sweetser says in the video.

Sweetser spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, telling the crowd he donated to Trump’s campaigns many times because Trump said he would advocate for blue-collar workers. Sweetser then said he realized the former president was “only for lining his own pockets”

In the video released last week, he said Trump’s tariff policies will harm not only businesses like his, but the American people as a whole.

“Trump’s tariffs would increase the cost of goods. And you look at what Trump said during the debate, he wants to do tariffs across the board,” he says. “Those tariffs are going to increase the cost to consumers.”

Meanwhile, according to Sweetser, Harris’ “proposed tax credits will help generate growth in many industries, specifically construction, it can be very useful for people that really want to do more with their life and take extra risk.”

Trump “doesn’t seem to care about small businesses or have any specific policy other than policies that benefit foreign adversaries and his immediate circle,” Sweetser claimed.

The Mobile resident, who told AL.com his family was harassed and threatened over speaking out against Trump, said in the video that he would never work on the former president’s properties.

“I would not do business with Donald Trump,” he said. “Donald Trump’s record is not a good record for paying his contractors. And I certainly wouldn’t do business with someone that lies continuously.”