More than 100 current Republicans, including leaders on the federal and state levels, have vowed to leave the GOP and form a third party if Republicans do not make fundamental changes in its leadership to minimize the impact of Trumpism on the Party, the New York Times reports.

The group is expected to release a letter outlining the ultimatum later this week in a move seen as a counter to House Republicans holding a vote Wednesday to remove Wyoming’s Liz Cheney from House leadership for voting to impeach Donald Trump and vocally opposing him.

“This is a first step,” said Miles Taylor, an organizer of the effort and a former Trump-era Department of Homeland Security official, told the Times.  “This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option.”

Taylor raised concerns about Trump’s governance as the anonymous writer of a New York Times op/ed “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” in September 2018 and a 2019 book called “A Warning.”

Taylor refused to list the people who have signed the letter so far, but a report by Reuters said that among the signatories are many former state and federal elected officials.  Among them:  former governors Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey will sign it, as will former Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and former Representatives Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma.