Associated Press

Liz Cheney braces for primary loss as focus shifts to 2024

By STEVE PEOPLES and MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press - 10h ago

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Three weeks before the most significant election of her political career, Liz Cheney was nowhere to be seen as thousands of voters gathered for a massive midsummer rodeo and cowboy festival in Wyoming’s largest city.


© Provided by Associated PressA billboard outside Cheyenne, Wyo., on July 19, 2022, calls on voters to cast their ballots for Harriet Hageman, who is running against incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the Republican primary election Aug. 16. Rep. Cheney is in the political fight of her life. Wyoming's congresswoman since 2016 is facing a Donald Trump-backed opponent, attorney Harriet Hageman, in the state's upcoming Republican primary. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)



© Provided by Associated PressA sign supporting Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is displayed outside a home in Cheyenne, Wyo., Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Cheney is in the political fight of her life. Wyoming's congresswoman since 2016 is facing a Donald Trump-backed opponent, attorney Harriet Hageman, in the state's upcoming Republican primary. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Instead, the three-term Republican congresswoman was 1,600 miles away in Washington presiding over a U.S. House committee comprised largely of Democrats intent on exposing former President Donald Trump's attack on democracy during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. As the cowboy fest roared back home, Cheney railed against Trump's failures.



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Virginia Torres, who moved to Wyoming from San Diego after retiring as a teacher a year ago, sits on her front porch in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Torres said she plans to vote for Harriet Hageman in Wyoming's Republican primary election Aug. 16. Hageman is running against incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. Torres said she does not support Cheney because it seems like she has a personal vendetta against former president Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” she said during Thursday's hearing.

Dean Finnerty, a rancher from Wheatland competing in the steer wrestling competition, was not moved.
“I tell you what: I voted for Cheney when she ran last time and I won’t vote for her ever again," Finnerty said. “I don’t know if she’s representing the conservative Americans that voted her in.”
Cheney's unrelenting criticism of Trump from a Capitol Hill committee room represents the centerpiece of an unconventional campaign strategy that may well lead to her political demise, at least in the short term. Many Cheney allies are prepared for — if not resigned to — a loss in Wyoming’s Aug. 16 Republican primary against Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman.
But as primary day approaches, there is also a pervasive belief among Cheney’s team that her unorthodox strategy in 2022 may put her in a stronger position for the 2024 presidential contest. Cheney's fierce anti-Trump message as vice chairman of the congressional committee investigating the insurrection has strengthened her national brand while expanding a national network of donors and Trump critics in both parties who could boost a prospective White House run.
Cheney has yet to finalize any decisions about 2024, but she has not ruled out a presidential run as a Republican or an independent.
"The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump," Cheney said in interview with ABC News that aired Friday. She said she would make a decision about a potential White House bid “down the road.”


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Election materials for Harriet Hageman sit on a table at the Wyoming Republican Party headquarters in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Hageman is running against incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the Republican primary election Aug. 16. Cheney has been largely absent from the campaign trail in Wyoming as she serves as vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee investigating the breach of the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Cheney's supporters understand the political paradox she faces in Wyoming, the state where Trump scored his largest margin of victory, 43 points, less than two years ago.
“She knew that she was shooting herself in the foot politically (in Wyoming) and she was going to walk around with a limp for the rest of her life,” Landon Brown, a Wyoming state representative and Cheney ally, said of Cheney's unwavering Trump criticism. “But I could see this blossoming into something larger.”

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Election yard signs line a sidewalk in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. One of the most closely watched races pits Harriet Hageman against incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the Aug. 16 Republican primary. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Cheney, the 55-year-old daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is perhaps the best known among a small group of so-called “Never Trump” Republicans weighing presidential bids for 2024. They include term-limited Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Cheney's only Republican colleague on the Jan. 6 commission, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who opted not to seek reelection this fall.


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Two men walk in front of the Wyoming Republican Party headquarters in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming's congresswoman since 2016. is facing a Donald Trump-backed opponent, attorney Harriet Hageman, in the state's upcoming Republican primary. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Trump would likely dominate a large field of presidential primary opponents should he run again, as he has said he will. But there is also a notable group of Republican voters eager to move past Trump and his continued fight to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Liz Cheney braces for primary loss as focus shifts to 2024 (msn.com)