Strategist's bolt from GOP a sign of Trump's impact of party

The longtime aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was one of the five senior Republican strategists tasked with identifying the party's shortcomings and recommending ways it could win the White House after its losing 2012 presidential campaign.

"Sally is representative of an important segment of our party, and that is college-educated women, where Donald Trump is losing by disastrous margins," said Ari Fleischer, who worked with Bradshaw on the GOP project and was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

[...] Bradshaw is among a group of top Republican operatives, messengers, national committee members and donors who continue to decry Trump's tactics, highlighting almost daily — with three months until Election Day — the rifts created by the billionaire and his takeover of the party.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, among the high-profile Republicans on hand, refused to endorse Trump and referenced now defunct political parties, such as the Whigs, when asked about the health of the modern-day GOP.

Another of those in attendance, House Speaker Paul Ryan, didn't even mention his party's presidential nominee during his speech to the group.

Bradshaw told The Associated Press her decision to change her voter registration in her home state of Florida was "a personal decision," with the tipping point being Trump's criticism of the Muslim mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004.