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      Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rival

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      Liz Cheney loses Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-endorsed rivalThe vice-chair of the House January 6 panel faced retribution from state voters for going against the former president Liz Cheney has paid the price for her staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s assault on US democracy by losing her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president.In praise of Liz Cheney. May we have more politicians like her | Robert ReichRead moreThe vice-chair of the January 6 committee was beaten by a conservative lawyer, Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Conceding defeat in a speech in Jackson, she said: “No House seats, no office in this land is more important than the principles we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty.“Our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections. And tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary. She won.“I called her to concede the race this primary election is over. But now the real work begins.”Widely predicted by opinion polls, the result continues a winning streak for Trump-endorsed candidates in congressional primaries and deals a blow to the last vestiges of the Republican party establishment.It would have been unthinkable just a few years ago in Wyoming, a deeply conservative state where the Cheney family has been seen as political royalty.The three-term congresswoman’s father, Dick Cheney, represented the state in the US House for a decade before becoming defense secretary under George HW Bush from 1989 to 1993 and vice-president under George W Bush from 2001 to 2009.Supporting his daughter this month, Dick Cheney called Trump the greatest “threat to our republic” in American history.He also said he was proud of his daughter “for standing up to the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so”.But Liz Cheney’s crusade against Trump during the January 6 committee’s televised hearings angered local Republicans, who accused her of putting her national career ambitions ahead of Wyoming constituents.She was praised by Democrats and independents for taking a principled stand despite the likelihood it would prove an act of political self-sacrifice.Leading Republicans were eager to celebrate Cheney’s defeat.In a statement released before the race was called, Elise Stefanik of New York, who replaced Cheney as the No3 House Republican, said: “Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her massive Republican primary victory in Wyoming over Nancy Pelosi’s puppet Liz Cheney.“… Harriet is a true America First patriot who will restore the people of Wyoming’s voice, which Liz Cheney had long forgotten”.Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, followed suit, saying Hageman would “make Wyoming proud”.The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group formed by disaffected conservatives, said: “Tonight, the nation marks the end of the Republican party.“What remains shares the name and branding of the traditional GOP, but is in fact an authoritarian nationalist cult dedicated only to Donald Trump.” More details soon …TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansUS politicsUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsnewsReuse this content More

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      Liz Cheney Braces for Wyoming’s Verdict, but History Will Have to Wait

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      Tonight’s big news will be the fate of Representative Liz Cheney, whose latter-day conversion from dedicated Republican partisan to Donald Trump’s chief inquisitor in Congress has been one of the most compelling story lines of the last 18 months.In just a few hours, we should know whether Cheney is able to retain her seat as Wyoming’s lone House member while helping investigate her own party’s leader — or whether her decision to do so has made her anathema to Republican base voters.You’ll be able to follow the results here. The polls closed at 9 p.m. Eastern time.Surveys show Cheney well behind her primary opponent, a Trump supporter named Harriet Hageman, even though she has vastly outraised and outspent her challenger thanks to her much louder national megaphone.But it’s precisely her fame that has probably doomed Cheney with Trump’s core voters, who see her as an apostate and a traitor to their cause.It was Cheney who spoke up inside the Republican Party after the assault on the Capitol, asking her colleagues whether Trump was considering resigning after whipping up the mob on Jan. 6, 2021.It was Cheney whose excommunication from the G.O.P. has driven a much larger discussion about the direction of a party that has become, in the eyes of many, a cult of personality centered on a person who is utterly unmoored from traditional conservative principles.And it was Cheney whose road-to-Damascus moment has awakened her to an entirely new mission: from rapidly ascending the ranks of Republican leadership in the House to turning her back on a party whose course her family has done so much to shape.To make sense of Cheney’s astonishing turn — and her apparent stoicism in the face of what looks like almost certain defeat in today’s primary election in Wyoming — I spoke with my colleague Jonathan Martin, who knows the full arc of her story about as well as anyone.Our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity:Republicans I speak with often seem baffled by Liz Cheney. They want to know what her real motivations are, assuming she has some ulterior political aims beyond the Jan. 6 committee that explain her stance against Trump. What do you make of that?I think it’s fair to say — and perhaps quite obvious — that she’s resigned to losing her primary. But as for motivations, I don’t think it’s more complicated than what she’s said publicly about her paramount goal: to stop Trump from returning to the White House.More Coverage of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsLiz Cheney: If the G.O.P. congresswoman loses her primary, as is widely expected, it will end the run of the Cheney dynasty in Wyoming. But she says her crusade to stop Donald J. Trump will continue.The Impeachment 10: Ms. Cheney is part of a group of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump over the Jan. 6 riot. Most of them have lost their primary races or are retiring.Sarah Palin: As the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential Republican nominee seeks the state’s lone House seat, voters appeared torn on whether she remained committed to them or had abandoned them for national fame.Abortion Ads: Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Democrats have spent nearly eight times as much on abortion-related ads as Republicans have, with Democratic strategists believing the issue has radically reshaped the 2022 landscape in their party’s favor.That’s clearly the aim of her work on the Jan. 6 committee (which, far more than the Wyoming primary, is her focus). As we reported recently, she privately told her colleagues on the panel in July that they had done “more to prevent Trump from ever regaining power than any group to date.”What do you think Liz Cheney learned about politics or life or public service from her dad?I’d only tweak the question to say she’s still learning.They remain very close, speaking every day. In fact, Liz’s inner circle is not much larger than her parents and her longtime chief of staff. She inherited her policy views, love of history and belief in American exceptionalism from both parents (don’t forget, her mother, Lynne, is a historian). Their view of Trump is clear enough from Liz’s comments and the former vice president’s recent ad.Dick Cheney attended his daughter’s swearing-in to Congress in 2017. They remain very close and are said to speak every day.Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesBut there’s something else that’s not as well known — the family’s love for the House. History would be different if Liz had run for Wyoming’s open Senate seat in 2020.But she grew up in a House family, her dad serving as the second-ranking Republican in the 1980s. Her parents even wrote a book, “Kings of the Hill,” on somewhat forgotten House speakers of the past. And Liz herself appeared to be on track to be a future speaker until she broke with much of her party after the 2020 election.I’ve heard it said that Cheney thinks she is playing to history, and that she is willingly choosing martyrdom in Wyoming because in some sense she thinks it’s fate. Does that sound right to you?Yes indeed. She believes strongly that she’s answering history’s call and that Trump must be stopped to protect her party and the country.For the wonks out there, Liz is very much a believer in the Great Man theory of history, and she wishes American schools would rededicate themselves to this approach. She told me as much when I interviewed her in Cheyenne this month.I think we all assume she’s going down with the ship tonight in Wyoming. Aside from the top-line result, what are you looking for in the numbers?I’m very curious about the urban-rural gap and what could be called the education divide. We know from polling that Trump is stronger with Republicans without college degrees. How much does that show up in the proxy war here in Wyoming?We have this single-minded focus in the Washington chattering class about whether famous politicians like Cheney want to run for president. But of course, there are other options, like setting up a political action committee to throw your weight around, as John Bolton did, or starting some kind of think tank or institute, as John McCain did. What are you hearing about what the Liz Cheney superfans in the disaffected corners of the G.O.P. want her to do next?I think it’s totally plausible that she could run for president or set up an organization to block Trump. And I think as long as Trump is blocked, her fans would be quite content.A Liz Cheney primerIn case you missed it, Jonathan Martin visited Cody, Wyo., on the eve of Tuesday’s Republican primary — which he called “the likely end of the Cheneys’ two-generation dynasty in Wyoming as well as the passing of a less tribal and more clubby and substance-oriented brand of politics.”In “Liz Cheney and the Fate of the 10 Republicans Who Defied Trump,” Michael Bender and Malika Khurana assess the former president’s campaign of vengeance against the House Republicans who voted to impeach him over the Capitol riot.Reid Epstein trudged around Wyoming back in February, when it was still unclear whether Cheney was planning to run again. What he found: a state that seemed ready to choose Trump over his would-be nemesis.For The New York Times Magazine, Robert Draper went deep last year on Cheney’s decision to embrace her role on the Jan. 6 committee and set aside her ambitions within the mainstream of the Republican Party.And our colleagues in The Times’s Opinion section heard from 13 voters in Wyoming who will decide Cheney’s fate.What to readBeyond Liz Cheney’s race in Wyoming, two other prominent Republican women — Senator Lisa Murkowski and Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential nominee — are facing primary voters today in Alaska. Follow live updates on both states (though be forewarned that because of Alaska’s unique election system, its contests might not be called tonight).Two top House Democrats accused the Trump-appointed internal watchdog of the Department of Homeland Security — who is under criticism for his handling of an investigation into missing Secret Service text messages around the time of the Capitol riot — of refusing to cooperate with congressional demands, and even blocking his employees from testifying before Congress.Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, the White House counsel and his deputy under Trump, are said to have been interviewed by the F.B.I. in connection with boxes of sensitive documents that were stored at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office, Maggie Haberman reports. (Here’s a timeline of Trump’s false and misleading comments about the search of his Florida residence.)Nicholas Fandos profiles Representative Carolyn Maloney, who is “nearing the endgame of an unwelcome, wide-open and increasingly vicious primary fight against her longtime congressional neighbor, Representative Jerrold Nadler, after a New York court unexpectedly combined their Manhattan districts this spring.”— BlakeIs there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com. More

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      Wyoming Democrats Voice Support for Liz Cheney at the Polls

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      Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming may not prevail in her Republican primary on Tuesday, but her effort to convince Democrats and independents to support her candidacy appears to have paid off in Wyoming’s bluest county, Teton, where Ms. Cheney lives.Interviews at polling places in the county on Monday, the last day of early voting, and on Tuesday turned up a stream of voters re-registering as Republicans in order to participate in the party’s primary and vote for Ms. Cheney.“I think she knows somebody is unfit when she sees him and she’s not going to kiss the ring and I respect her for that,” said Brad Hoyt, an architect in Wilson, Wyo., a small community just west of Jackson where Ms. Cheney lives. Mr. Hoyt, who wanted to record his support for Ms. Cheney’s opposition to former President Donald J. Trump, said he was “in between” the major parties and would change his registration at Wilson’s Old Schoolhouse, the village’s polling place.Not far behind Mr. Hoyt was Andy Calders, a musician who said he is a Democrat but registered as a Republican in Wyoming so that he could participate in nominating contests for the state’s dominant party.“She’s only done one thing I liked, but I liked it so much I voted for her,” Mr. Calders said of Ms. Cheney’s effort to hold Mr. Trump “accountable for what he’s obviously done” in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.Mr. Trump backed Harriet Hageman in the primary against Ms. Cheney, who is serving on a congressional panel investigating Mr. Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.The anti-Trump voters were turning out in equally large numbers in Jackson, where the wait to vote reached 45 minutes at one point on Monday.Maggie Shipley, who works for a local nonprofit organization, said she was switching her registration to Republican so that she could vote for Ms. Cheney in the primary.“The election lies are terrifying to me and preserving democracy is really important and at least she has that going,” Ms. Shipley explained. More

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      Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rival

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      Liz Cheney looks set to lose Congress seat to Trump-backed rivalPolls show congresswoman trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s Republican primary Widely praised for her defence of democracy during the January 6 committee hearings, Liz Cheney looks set to lose her seat in Congress on Tuesday to a rival backed by former US president Donald Trump.Opinion polls show Cheney trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.Republicans rue price of fame as celebrity Senate candidates struggleRead moreVictory for Hageman would continue a recent winning streak for Trump-backed candidates in congressional primaries and deal a blow to remnants of the Republican party establishment.Cheney is vice-chairwoman of the House panel investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. She has used the committee’s televised hearings to eviscerate Trump and members of her own party who remain loyal to him and his “big lie” that electoral fraudsters caused his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.The three-term congresswoman has also made the existential struggle for American democracy a central part of her re-election campaign in Wyoming.In a closing video message, she said: “America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious. It preys on those who love their country. It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”But Cheney’s status as an unyielding leader of the anti-Trump resistance has alienated many Wyoming Republicans, many of whom accuse her of putting personal ambition in Washington ahead of her constituents at home.She trailed Hageman 52% to 30% in a survey of likely primary voters from 7 to 11 July published by Wyoming’s Casper Star-Tribune. A University of Wyoming poll released last week put Hageman’s lead at 29 percentage points.Supporters of Cheney, the 56-year-old daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, believe she still has a fighting chance if enough Democrats and independents cross over and vote for her, which is allowed in the state’s primary system.But political strategist Terry Sullivan, who managed the Republican senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, regards Cheney’s defeat on Tuesday as a “foregone conclusion” but sees her efforts as part of a larger battle.“Liz Cheney isn’t fighting for re-election – she’s fighting for the direction of the Republican party,” he told the Reuters news agency, noting that some observers have discussed whether Cheney should mount a presidential campaign in 2024. “It’s more of a kind of a beginning, not an end.”Cheney supported Trump’s agenda 93% of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight website. But she was stripped of her role as the No 3 House Republican for voting to impeach him on a charge of inciting the January 6 Capitol attack.She was among 10 House Republicans to do so and to earn the former president’s wrath and vow of revenge. Three others have already lost their primaries – four decided not to run again and two won their contests.The fate of another Trump adversary, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, was less clear on Tuesday as the state’s non-partisan primary format allows the top four vote-getters to advance to the 8 November general election, which could bring a possible rematch of Murkowski and Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka.Alaska voters will also determine whether to pick Sarah Palin, a former governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee whom Trump endorsed for the state’s only House seat.Palin finished first among 48 candidates to qualify for a special election seeking to replace congressman Don Young, who died in March at age 88, after 49 years as Alaska’s sole House member.Palin is on Tuesday’s ballot twice: once in a special election to complete Young’s term and another for a full two-year House term starting in January.Most of the candidates Trump has backed this election season have triumphed in what his supporters say is a sign of his continued sway over the party as he considers whether to run for office again in 2024.TopicsHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsWyomingAlaskaUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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      Wyoming Elections: How to Vote and What’s on the Ballot

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      The political world’s gaze on Tuesday will turn to Wyoming, where Representative Liz Cheney, a top target of the midterm election revenge tour of former President Donald J. Trump, is bracing for defeat in a Republican primary.Ms. Cheney, the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee who voted last year to impeach Mr. Trump, has been badly trailing Harriet Hageman, the Trump-backed challenger, in polls.It is not the only contested race on the ballot. Here is a refresher on the rules for voting and what is at stake.How to voteWyoming provides same-day voter registration, unlike many states with early deadlines for participating in elections. Residents who meet the state’s eligibility requirements can register in person at their polling place until 7 p.m. Mountain time on Tuesday.You have to be registered with a political party to vote in the primary. Voters can change their party affiliation at their polling place on Tuesday.Where to voteClick here to look up your assigned place to vote. Absentee ballots must be received at your county clerk’s office by Tuesday at 7 p.m. Mountain time, which is also when the polls close for in-person voting.What is on the ballotIn deep-red Wyoming, the Republican primary winner for the state’s lone House seat is virtually assured of being elected in November. The Democratic primary features three candidates.In the governor’s race, the incumbent, Mark Gordon, is facing three Republican challengers, while Democrats will choose between two candidates.Voters will also decide various intraparty races for secretary of state, state auditor, the Legislature and county offices.The state does not have a central website where voters can see a preview of their full ballot, but Ballotpedia offers a sample ballot tool. More

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      Liz Cheney’s Primary in Wyoming Is Likely to End a Dynasty and an Era

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      CODY, Wyo. — At an event last month honoring the 14,000 Japanese Americans who were once held at the Heart Mountain internment camp near here, Representative Liz Cheney was overcome with emotions, and a prolonged standing ovation wasn’t the only reason.Her appearance — with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as former Senator Alan Simpson and the children of Norman Mineta, a Democratic congressman turned transportation secretary who was sent to the camp when he was 10 — was part of a groundbreaking for the new Mineta-Simpson Institute. Ms. Cheney was moved, she said, by the presence of the survivors and by their enduring commitment to the country that imprisoned them during World War II.There was something else, though, that got to the congresswoman during the bipartisan ceremony with party elders she was raised to revere. “It was just a whole combination of emotion,” she recalled in a recent interview.As Ms. Cheney faces a near-certain defeat on Tuesday in her House primary, it is the likely end of the Cheneys’ two-generation dynasty as well as the passing of a less tribal and more clubby and substance-oriented brand of politics.“We were a very powerful delegation, and we worked with the other side, that was key, because you couldn’t function if you didn’t,” recalled Mr. Simpson, now 90, fresh off being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and as tart-tongued as ever about his ancestral party. “My dad was senator and a governor, and if I ran again today as a Republican I’d get my ass beat — it’s not about heritage.”He was elected to the Senate in 1978, the same year that Mr. Cheney won Wyoming’s at-large House seat, and they worked closely together, two Republicans battling on behalf of the country’s least populated state in an era when Democrats always controlled at least one chamber of Congress.It’s not mere clout, however, that traditional Wyoming Republicans are pining for as they consider their gilded past and ponder the state’s less certain political and economic future. Before Tuesday’s election, which is likely to propel Harriet Hageman, who is backed by former President Donald J. Trump, to the House, the nostalgia in the state is running deeper than the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.Mr. Cheney and Mr. Simpson were not only in the leadership of their respective chambers in the 1980s; they, along with Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Yale-educated cold warrior whose grandfather served in both the British House of Lords and the Wyoming Legislature, got along well and often appeared together as a delegation in a sort of road show across the sprawling state (“A small town with long streets,” as the Wyoming saying goes).From left, Senator Malcolm Wallop, Representative Dick Cheney and Senator Alan Simpson during Mr. Cheney’s nomination hearing for defense secretary in 1989.Ron Edmonds/AP PhotoEven headier was the administration of President George Bush. Mr. Cheney became defense secretary, and his wife, Lynne, served as chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, while Mr. Simpson was both the second-ranking Senate Republican and one of the president’s closest friends. On top of that, the secretary of state at the time, James A. Baker III, spent summers on his Wyoming ranch, meaning two of the country’s top national security officials could be found doing unofficial promotional work for the state’s tourism industry.“You’d have Army choppers snatching Cheney and Baker from fishing holes,” recalled Rob Wallace, who was Mr. Wallop’s chief of staff.As conservative as the state was on the national level — Lyndon B. Johnson is the only Democrat to carry Wyoming in the past 70 years — the Wyoming Republican delegation worked effectively with two well-regarded Democratic governors in that same period, Ed Herschler and Mike Sullivan.Now, Ms. Cheney hardly even speaks to the two other Wyomingites in Congress — Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both Republicans — and has little contact with Gov. Mark Gordon. Ms. Lummis has endorsed Ms. Hageman. But Mr. Barrasso and Mr. Gordon, who are mainline Republicans in the Cheney tradition, have sought to maintain neutrality in hopes of avoiding Mr. Trump’s wrath.More Coverage of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsAug. 9 Primaries: In Wisconsin and a handful of other states, Trump endorsements resonated. Here’s what else we learned and a rundown of some notable wins and losses.Arizona Governor’s Race: Like other hard-right candidates this year, Kari Lake won her G.O.P. primary by running on election lies. But her polished delivery, honed through decades as a TV news anchor, have landed her in a category all her own.Climate, Health and Tax Bill: The Senate’s passage of the legislation has Democrats sprinting to sell the package by November and experiencing a flicker of an unfamiliar feeling: hope.Disputed Maps: New congressional maps drawn by Republicans in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio were ruled illegal gerrymanders. They’re being used this fall anyway.“They’ve got to make their own choices and live with the choices that they make,” Ms. Cheney said about the two men, before adding: “There are too many people who think that somebody else will fix the problem, that we can stay on the sidelines and Trump will fade.” More

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      ‘Not enough Wyoming’? Liz Cheney fights for the votes of her disgruntled constituents

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      Liz Cheney fights for her House seat as Trumpists vow to ‘send her packing’Her leadership role on the January 6 panel makes her a martyr for democracy to some – and an apostate to others Darin Smith says he remembers January 6 very differently from Liz Cheney and her congressional colleagues investigating the US Capitol riot.“People were singing patriotic songs, the national anthem, hymns,” insists Smith, who was outside the Capitol that day to protest about Donald Trump’s election defeat. “There was a group of grey-haired ladies – the average age had to have been mid-70s – that were praying.”Nineteen months later, Smith is sitting in a cafe in his home city of Cheyenne in the western state of Wyoming. He condemns the violence that took place inside the Capitol but, despite a mountain of evidence, scoffs at the idea that Trump was responsible. And he is adamant that Cheney, his representative in Congress, should pay a price for her anti-Trump crusade.The three-term congresswoman may lose her seat in Tuesday’s Republican primary election in Wyoming, the most watched congressional primary of the year. Opinion polls show Cheney trailing Harriet Hageman, conservative lawyer and vehicle of Trump’s vengeance, and defeat for the clarion voice of the January 6 panel will, in many eyes, make her a martyr for American democracy.It will also signal a tectonic shift in Wyoming, the least populated state in America and one of the most devoutly Republican. Its most consequential political figure is Dick Cheney, vice-president under George W Bush and father of Liz. Last week, in cowboy hat, fleece and gruff tones, he recorded a campaign video for her, excoriating Trump as a “coward” and saying there has never been anyone who is a “greater threat to our republic”.Victory for Hageman would therefore be widely interpreted as a repudiation of Wyoming’s most venerable political dynasty, evidence that the state Republican party no longer belongs to the Cheneys but to Trump. That would reflect a final national pivot away from the Bush era establishment to the “Make America Great Again” movement – from old school conservatism to far-right populism.Smith, wearing a blue T-shirt that said “1776 Forever Free”, grey shorts and black flip-flops, is in no doubt which camp he belongs to. Last year he was a candidate in the Republican primary for Cheney’s House seat, raised $400,000 and made a pilgrimage to Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to seek the former president’s all-important endorsement.“It was like speed dating, my wife said,” the 48-year-old lawyer recalls. “I said, ‘I have a poll right here, sir, that shows that I could win today. Actually the polling that we took says that I could beat anybody in the state except for you, sir.’ He said, ‘Let me see that poll!’”The pitch was unsuccessful and Trump gave Hageman the nod instead; Smith abandoned his campaign within a day and insists that he is not bitter. He is “100% behind Harriet Hageman” and shares her doubts – repeatedly debunked – about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. “Liz Cheney, in our minds, betrayed the constitution, betrayed the nation, and we’re going to send her packing.”Smith argues that Cheney – one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection – is bitter about Trump’s criticism of her father as the mastermind of a neoconservatism that led to the torturing of suspects, opening of a prison at Guantánamo Bay and waging of an illegal war on Iraq.“It was a vendetta. She’s mad at Trump because Trump pointed out the truth of the Cheney foreign policy. Her dad is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide and trillions of dollars in spending from the US government. She’s pissed about it and she’s a narcissist and she saw her opportunity to go for Trump’s throat and she did.“But it’s bigger than that. She wants to be the first woman president. We all know that. We’re not stupid. She’s going to ‘educate’ us in the constitution and how ‘we’re wrong and she’s right.’ Well, she’s got news and she’s got something coming for her on Tuesday of next week. She’s gonna find out if she educated us or not.”The accusation that Cheney, 56, is driven by personal ambition in Washington, rather than by the needs of her constituents in Wyoming, is common among her critics here.They complain that she has devoted more time to the televised hearings of the January 6 committee, where she serves as vice-chair, than to retail politics in her home state. Her campaign ads emphasise her role on the national stage as a defender of the constitution.James King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming, said Cheney’s opponent has seized on the theme that “she is too much Washington and not enough Wyoming”.He added: “Certainly her participation in the committee and its public hearings have done nothing to change that view; if anything, it would be reinforcing it. It’s not just a support or not support Trump; it’s also, they will argue, too much the national and not enough the state: ‘She’s not of Wyoming any longer.’ It’s easy to say this is about Donald Trump but from the state angle it’s: ‘You’re not paying attention to us.’”Indeed, Cheney has raised more than $13m largely thanks to donations from outside Wyoming, a vast sum for a congressional primary and far ahead of Hageman, who has travelled the state extensively to court voters. This, too, is seen as evidence that the incumbent is beholden to outside interests.In Cheyenne, the state capital, Dianna Burchett, 62, a nurse who has voted for Cheney in the past, said: “She was put in office to do what the people of Wyoming wanted her to do and she went against the people of the state. She needs to keep her views to herself but she’s on a witch-hunt or blood hunt. It’s inexcusable.”Laura Harnish, 53, an administrator who used to sit on an election committee for Dick Cheney, added: “I wouldn’t vote for Liz Cheney if she was the last person on the ballot. The January 6 committee was very badly done. She wasn’t representing Wyoming at that point. I vote for you. That’s who you represent: Wyoming. If you’re not going to do that then you don’t need to be in office. You need to find something else to do.”In Wyoming, home to just 581,348 people, voters expect a certain level of intimacy with politicians. Mike Sullivan, the state’s former governor, described it as “a small town with unusually long streets”, and locals say that anyone who suffers a flat tyre never has to wait long for a helping hand.In Cheyenne, the “Magic City of the Plains”, members of the public can wander freely about the state capitol building with a lack of security restrictions that evokes an earlier time. The house of representatives chamber nods to the state’s origins with paintings representing “cattlemen”, “homesteaders”, “stage coach” and “trappers”.Wyoming has long had a way-out-west independent streak: in 1869 it became the first territory or state to grant women the right to vote and, in 1925, elected America’s first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross. Known as both the “Equality State” and “Cowboy State”, in the 1990s it welcomed visitors with signs that proclaimed: “Like no place on earth.”Even today it can feel remote from national trends. It has no major professional sports team and, since 1983, no scheduled passenger rail service. The state museum in Cheyenne notes that “for centuries, Wyoming was a place to journey through rather than a destination … the ‘Highway of the West’.”But in 2020 this was the state where Trump scored his biggest margin of victory, 43 percentage points. In downtown Cheyenne, the Republican party office window displays a prominent sign: “Election integrity”. Inside, in uneasy coexistence, the wall features portraits of former presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Trump as well as a commemorative photo of Bush and Cheney’s inauguration in 2001.Loyalty to the Cheneys still runs deep in some quarters. On Tuesday afternoon, Richard Gage, 67, a lawyer, was hosing bushes outside his office. The lifelong Republican reflected: “She’s done a great job and she’s one of the few people with the courage to stand up to Donald Trump. He’s trying to destroy my democracy. He’s trying to overturn an election that he lost and that’s a direct threat to democracy itself.”Gage has a Cheney sign displayed prominently and said it has resulted in rubbish being thrown on his lawn, a glimpse of how this campaign has taken on a menacing tone. Cheney herself has faced death threats and been forced to abandon traditional campaign stops and public rallies in favour of small-scale private events.Joseph McGinley, a Republican county state committeeman who praises Cheney for “leadership in action” and believes she “would make a great president”, said: “There have been people that are supporting Hageman that have been stealing Cheney signs and vandalising Cheney signs.“I was away for the weekend and came back and half the Cheney signs were gone, even in our neighbourhood, not in a very public area. The stealing of Cheney signs is a real thing and that’s unfortunate. It shows the people that are supporting Hageman are willing to do anything and they’re afraid Cheney is going to win.”McGinley, 47, a doctor and entrepreneur based in Casper, said the battle for the soul of the state party can be traced back to the conservative Tea Party movement during the Barack Obama era. “They truly put in a ground game and it was many years and, if you were in the party, you could actually see it occurring.”This made for a party shifting under the Cheneys’ feet. Dick is deep in retirement but Liz has effectively been excommunicated by the state party, which voted last year to censure her before deciding to stop recognising her as a Republican altogether. Local party offices offer yard signs for Hageman and many other Republicans on the ballot but not Cheney.The congresswoman has therefore turned to an unlikely group for help: Democrats. Her campaign website features a link to a form allowing voters to change their party affiliation to Republican to take part in the Republican primary. This unusual move is based on an appeal to pragmatism in what is effectively a one-party state; Wyoming has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968.It appears to be working. In January, according to the secretary of state’s office, there were 196,179 registered Republicans in the state and 45,822 registered Democrats. As of 1 August, this had shifted to 207,674 registered Republicans and 39,753 registered Democrats.David Martin, communications director of the Wyoming Democratic party, said: “I know a few people personally who have already switched over. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what one of them told me and she put it bluntly: ‘I’m voting to keep the crazies out.’”No “crossover” voter is more prominent than Sullivan, the former governor, who after six decades as a registered Democrat recently switched to Republican so he could vote for Cheney. The 82-year-old retired lawyer explained by phone from Casper: “There are times when politics takes a backseat. Her work has been extraordinary and it’s reflective of both her intellect and her leadership.”Sullivan, who served as governor from 1987 to 1995, said he was aware of Cheney yard signs being defaced or torn down in his neighborhood. “The nature of Liz’s opposition is more mean-spirited than when I was in office. You can attribute that to a lot of things but certainly President Trump opened the door to make that more mainstream than it has otherwise been.”Cheney has not ruled out a 2024 presidential run as a Republican or an independent. Asked if he would consider supporting her, Sullivan replied: “I’d have to make that decision at the time. Now, whether I can picture her running for president under the circumstances in which she finds herself, I don’t know. I’m convinced she’s going to come out with a very powerful legacy: the profile in courage sort of legacy that is going to put her in good stead.”Like her father, who under President Gerald Ford was the youngest chief of staff in White House history, Cheney plays a decades-long game. At one of the January 6 hearings, she reminded fellow Republicans that there will come a day when Trump is gone. Defeat on Tuesday might be the end of one career but the launchpad for another with even greater ambitions.Not all Democrats, however, are ready to embrace a conservative who used to appear regularly on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and, according to the FiveThirtyEight website, voted in line with Trump’s position 93% of the time during his presidency.Ted Hanlon, 63, running a long-shot campaign for the state senate, said: “I’ve been in Wyoming all my life. I knew her and I knew her dad and I have no evidence yet that a Cheney did something that was not self-serving.“I’m glad she’s doing the January 6 hearings. If any other Republicans had been on the January 6 committee it would not have gone as well as it has and would not have come as close to the truth as it has. So I’m grateful that she’s there. It does not cause me to admire her in any way though.”TopicsWyomingUS politicsRepublicansJanuary 6 hearingsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Liz Cheney embraces her role in the Jan. 6 inquiry in a closing campaign ad.

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      Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming is highlighting her role as the top Republican on the Jan. 6 committee in a closing ad for her all but doomed re-election campaign, as polls show her badly trailing her Trump-backed opponent, Harriet Hageman, just five days before the primary.But the nearly two-and-a-half-minute ad released online Thursday appeared aimed as much at a national audience as at the Republican primary voters in Wyoming who will decide the fate of Ms. Cheney, the state’s lone member of the House.“The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious,” Ms. Cheney said as the ad opens. “It preys on those who love their country. It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”Ms. Cheney, who has been vilified by former President Donald J. Trump and many of his supporters, defended the work of the special House committee that is investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol and efforts by Mr. Trump to overturn the 2020 election results.Ms. Cheney, the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee, has acknowledged her political peril. A poll released on Thursday by the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center showed Ms. Cheney trailing Ms. Hageman by nearly 30 points.More Coverage of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsAug. 9 Primaries: In Wisconsin and a handful of other states, Trump endorsements resonated. Here’s what else we learned and a rundown of some notable wins and losses.Arizona Governor’s Race: Like other hard-right candidates this year, Kari Lake won her G.O.P. primary by running on election lies. But her polished delivery, honed through decades as a TV news anchor, have landed her in a category all her own.Climate, Health and Tax Bill: The Senate’s passage of the legislation has Democrats sprinting to sell the package by November and experiencing a flicker of an unfamiliar feeling: hope.Disputed Maps: New congressional maps drawn by Republicans in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio were ruled illegal gerrymanders. They’re being used this fall anyway.She is the last of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Mr. Trump’s impeachment to stand before voters in a primary this year. Three have lost: Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, Tom Rice of South Carolina and Peter Meijer of Michigan. Two others survived their primaries, and four declined to seek another term.Titled “The Great Task,” the ad is being promoted on social media, but is not appearing on television, according to Jeremy Adler, a campaign spokesman for Ms. Cheney.In the ad, Ms. Cheney described Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud as his legacy and said that the nation has an obligation to hold those responsible for fomenting violence.“History has shown us over and over again how these types of poisonous lies destroy free nations,” Ms. Cheney said of those insisting that Mr. Trump won the election. “No one who understands our nation’s laws, no one with an honest, honorable, genuine commitment to our Constitution would say that. It is a cancer that threatens our great republic.”Ms. Cheney did not mention Ms. Hageman by name in her ad, but drew a comparison between her opponents in Wyoming and election-denying candidates across the nation. Last week, Ms. Hageman repeated Mr. Trump’s false claim that the election was rigged.Tim Murtaugh, an adviser for Ms. Hageman’s campaign, accused Ms. Cheney of abandoning Wyoming. “This video is basically an audition tape for CNN or MSNBC,” he said.Ms. Cheney’s renunciation of Mr. Trump — and her vote to impeach him last year — have already come at a political price. The Wyoming Republican Party censured her in February 2021, a month after Ms. Cheney’s impeachment vote. House Republicans later ousted Ms. Cheney as the party’s No. 3 leader in the chamber, replacing her with Representative Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist from New York.As the ad closed, Ms. Cheney said that she would always seek to preserve peaceful transitions of power, “not violent confrontations, intimidation, and thuggery,” and added, “where we are led by people who love this country more than themselves.” More