Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott announced he voted for Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, becoming the first incumbent Republican to do so this election.

Scott told reporters why he opted for the Democratic candidate at a Vermont municipal office Tuesday afternoon, according to a Nov. 3 VTDigger article.

“President Trump has had four years to unite this country and has failed to do so, and that’s my biggest concern, that we need someone to pull this all together,” Scott said. “Our country needs to heal, and I’m very concerned about what another four years will do to our country.”

Though he admitted that he disagreed with some of Biden’s policies, he thought that Biden would be better at “bringing us back together.” 

However, Scott said deciding on who to vote for was challenging and admitted he considered not voting for either Biden or Trump.

“I had to do some soul searching,” he said. “I had to put my country before my party, which wasn’t an easy thing to do in some respects.”

If Biden wins the election, it will be thanks to moderates and centrists like him, he said. 

Scott said he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 election either.

According to a May 2016 VTDigger article, Scott instead wrote in Former Republican Governor Jim Douglas.

The Vermont Democratic Party, though in support of his decision, found it unacceptable that it took him so long to decide and said that Scott should have come to this conclusion sooner, according to the VTDigger article. 

“In the most critical election of our lifetime, this was not a tough decision and he should have known to vote for Vice President Biden long ago,” said Victoria Moon, secretary of the Vermont Democratic Party. 

Scott skipped his usual press conference today in light of the election, and is prepared to release a video following the results of the election.