(Headline USA) The Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for her seat won a straw poll conducted by GOP activists in the state this week.
Harriet Hageman won 59 votes from Wyoming Republican State Central Committee members, while Cheney won only six votes, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
“I think it’s a good sign. It’s not an endorsement, but these are the county activists,” Hageman said.
Trump endorsed Hageman in September, calling her a true America First candidate.
“Unlike RINO [Republican in name only] Liz Cheney, Harriet is all in for America First. Harriet has my Complete and Total Endorsement in replacing the Democrats number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney. Make America Great Again!” Trump said in a statement.
When asked about the poll, Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler said, “The only elections that matter are in August and November.”
Cheney has been on the outs with the Republican Party ever since she voted to impeach him following the Jan. 6 Capitol protests and agreed to sit on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., partisan Jan. 6 congressional committee.
Last February, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to censure Cheney, and in November they went a step further and voted to no longer recognize her as a member of the GOP.
“Liz Cheney stopped recognizing what Wyomingites care about a long time ago. When she launched her war against President Trump, she completely broke with where we are as a state,” Hageman said at the time.
Adler claimed it is “laughable” for anyone to suggest Cheney isn’t a “conservative Republican.”
“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution,” he said.
“Sadly a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” he added.
