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Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Wyoming State Representative Liz CheneyDonald trump cardThe fiercest Republican opponent in Congress, in a republican The defeat in Tuesday’s primary election to an opponent backed by the former president strengthened his grip on the party’s base.
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The third-term congresswoman and her allies are pessimistic about her prospects as they realize that Trump’s support gives Harriet Hagerman a sizable chunk of the state that Harriet Hagerman won by the most margins during the 2020 campaign. improvement. Cheney is already looking ahead to her political future beyond Capitol Hill, which could include a 2024 presidential race that could bring her into another conflict with Trump.
Cheney described her loss as the beginning of a new chapter in her political career, when she addressed a small group of supporters, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, as she stood in a field surrounded by mountains and The edge of a vast field surrounded by bales of hay.
“Our work is far from over,” she said Tuesday night, reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln, who also lost congressional elections before rising to the presidency and defending unions.
The results, along with a margin of roughly 30 percentage points, are a strong reminder that the Republican Party is rapidly turning to the right. A party once dominated by national security-oriented, business-friendly conservatives like her father now belongs to Trump because of his populist appeal and, most importantly, his denial of losing the 2020 election. He was exhilarated.
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Those lies, which have been outright rejected by federal and state election officials, as well as by Trump’s own attorney general and the judges he has appointed, have transformed Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president to the clearest voice within the Republican Party warning him of what constitutes democracy threat specification. She was the top Republican on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising of Trump supporters thugs at the U.S. Capitol, and she mentioned the attack in a nod to her political future.
“I’ve said since January 6 that I will do everything I can to make sure that Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office again, and I mean it,” she said.
Four hundred miles east of Cheney’s concession speech, festive Hagerman supporters gathered for a sprawling outdoor rodeo and western culture festival in Cheyenne, many in cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans.
“Obviously, we’re all very grateful to President Trump for acknowledging that Wyoming has only one congressional representative, and we have to count that,” said Hagerman, a ranch industry attorney who finished third in a previous gubernatorial race.
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Echoing Trump’s conspiracy theory, she falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” as she wooed his loyalists on the eve of the election.
Trump and his team celebrated Cheney’s loss, possibly his biggest political victory in a primary season filled with them. The former president called the result a “total rebuke” of the Jan. 6 committee.
“Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she behaved and her malicious, sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” he wrote on his social media platform. “Now that she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion, I’m sure she will be much happier than she is now. Thank you Wyoming!”
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The news freed Trump from his growing legal entanglements. Just eight days ago, federal agents executing a search warrant recovered 11 sets of classified records from the former president’s Florida estate.
Just two years ago, Cheney’s failure was unthinkable. The daughter of the former vice president, she comes from one of Wyoming’s most prominent political families. In Washington, she is the third Republican in the House, an influential voice in Republican politics and policy, and has an excellent conservative voting record.
Cheney will now be forced to leave Congress at the end of his third and final term in January. She is not expected to leave Capitol Hill quietly.
She will continue to lead the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 attacks until it disbands at the end of the year. She is actively considering a 2024 bid for the White House — as a Republican or an independent — vowing to do everything in her power to fight Trump’s influence in her party.
With Cheney’s defeat, the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are going extinct.
In total, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican House members supported impeachment in the days after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress tried to prove President Joe Biden’s victory. This year, only two of those 10 House members won the primary. After two Senate retirements, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is the only such Senate Republican to vote this year.
To win, Cheney was forced to seek help from the state’s minority Democrats. But Democrats across the U.S., among them major donors, are taking note. She raised at least $15 million for her election, a staggering number for a Wyoming political campaign.
Voters responded with interest in the race. With just over half of the votes counted, turnout was about 50 percent higher than in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary.
If Cheney ends up running for president as a Republican or an independent, don’t expect her to win Wyoming’s three electoral votes.
“We love Trump. She’s trying to impeach Trump,” Cheyenne voter Chester Buckle said of Cheney on Tuesday. “I don’t trust Liz Cheney.”
In Jackson, Republican voter Dan Wind said he felt betrayed by his congresswoman.
“In the last presidential election, more than 70 percent of Wyoming voted Republican, and she turned and voted no,” said Winder, the hotel manager. “She is our representative, not her own.”
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