(Headline USA) RINO Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyomig is facing a dire threat from Republican opponent Harriet Hageman, a Cheyenne ranching industry attorney who has harnessed the full force of the Trump movement in her bid to expel Cheney from the House on Tuesday as voters weigh in on the direction of the GOP.
Cheney’s team is bracing for a loss against the Trump-backed challenger, in the state in which he won by the largest of margins during the 2020 campaign.
Win or lose in deep-red Wyoming, the 56-year-old daughter of a vice president is vowing not to disappear from national politics as she contemplates a 2024 presidential bid.
“I’m still hopeful that the polling numbers are wrong,” said Landon Brown, a Wyoming state representative and vocal Cheney ally. “It’ll be a crying shame really if she does lose. It shows just how much of a stranglehold that Donald Trump has on the Republican Party.”
So far, the former president has largely dominated the fight to shape the GOP in his image, having helped install loyalists in key general election matchups from Arizona to Georgia to Pennsylvania.
In all, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican House members joined every Democrat in supporting the second impeachment effort against Trump.
Just two of those 10 House members have won their GOP primaries this year. The rest have lost or declined to seek reelection.
Many Republicans in the state—and in the country—have essentially excommunicated Cheney because of her outspoken criticism of Trump. The House GOP ousted her as the No. 3 House leader last year. And more recently, the Wyoming GOP and Republican National Committee censured her.
Her political survival may depend upon persuading enough Democrats to cast ballots in her Republican primary election. While some Democrats have rallied behind her, it’s unclear whether there are enough in the state to make a difference. Biden earned just 26% of Wyoming’s vote in 2020.
Anti-Trump groups such as U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s Country First PAC and the so-called Republican Accountability Project have worked to encourage independents and Democrats to support Cheney in recent weeks. They are clearly disappointed by the expected outcome of Tuesday’s election, although some are hopeful about her political future.
“What’s remarkable is that in the face of almost certain defeat she’s never once wavered,” said Sarah Longwell, executive director of the Republican Accountability Project. “We’ve been watching a national American figure be forged. It’s funny how small the election feels—the Wyoming election—because she feels bigger than it now.”
Cheney has seemingly welcomed defeat by devoting almost every resource at her disposal to ending Trump’s political career since Jan. 6.
She was hand-picked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take a lead role in the congressional committee investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 uprising.
She has also devoted the vast majority of her time to the committee instead of the campaign trail back home, a decision that still fuels murmurs of disapproval among some Wyoming allies. And she has closed out the primary campaign with an unflinching anti-Trump message.
“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” former Vice President Dick Cheney said in a recent ad produced by his daughter’s campaign.
He continued, “There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
