Cheney’s pro-Trump opponent is running into weakening results in 2020

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By Alex Rogers, CNN

If Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the Republican Party, most likely in the hands of Harriet Hageman.

Hageman, Wyoming’s former Republican national committee, launched his campaign last week, emphasizing his deep roots in the state, his conservative values ​​and his alliance with former President Donald Trump, who targeted Cheney after the congressman publicly denied his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and held him accountable for deadly violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In an interview, Hageman called Trump the “leader of the party” and questioned the integrity of the previous election. He repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won, and said, “I think there are legitimate questions about what happened in the 2020 election.”

Insist on what questions he had, Hageman pointed to audits conducted by Republicans in Arizona and Georgia. He said the public will “know more when the reports are released.”

Hageman said, “The legitimate questions are: ‘What happened?'”

There is no evidence of widespread election fraud in 2020. But the 2022 Wyoming House race could still unravel how Republicans answer Hageman’s question, as the party decides whether to believe in a conspiracy.

Cheney called Trump’s continued efforts to claim victory as a “big lie” a “severe threat to democracy” in hopes Republicans would dissuade him from the page. He was recently named vice chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot in the capitol.

But he’s playing on the Trump turf: In 2020, nearly 70% of Wyoming voters supported him, more than any other state in the country, while Cheney received nearly 69%.

Even some of Cheney’s supporters are wondering if he will win the race, as have other Republican candidates who have fallen to unite behind Hageman.

“I think it’s close,” said Wyoming state senator Charles Scott, a longtime Republican lawmaker. “It’s not a definite thing either way.”

Cheney set the conservative record in the bid to save the seat

Cheney was first elected to the House in 2016, after a lifetime launch of the excellence of foreign policy values, and quickly rose to the No. 1 position. 3 House GOP. He is the son of the state’s favorite son, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served in his statewide seat from 1979 to 1989.

But Liz Cheney broke away from the GOP base when she voted to impeach Trump in January for “inciting the uprising.” After a pro-Trump mob violated the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from confirming Biden’s victory, he said Trump “called”, “” developed “and” lit the flames of this attack, ” and that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and oath to the Constitution. “

The backlash in his celebration was rapid. The Wyoming Republican Party reprimanded him, saying “there was no time during our tenure that we saw this kind of a moan from our fellow Republicans.” In May, his fellow House Republicans voted him into his leadership role, regretting that he continued to deny Trump’s false election claims publicly rather than focus all his attention on Biden. Many Wyoming Republicans have launched campaigns to run against him, and several potential candidates, including Hageman, met with Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey as he considered who would return.

Cheney’s vote would be a clear contrast to the race. Hageman told CNN that he “absolutely no” voted to harm Trump after the Jan. 6 riot, and that those who “violated or damaged property should be held accountable for their own actions,” rather than the former president, who he believes has not been given a proper “due process.”

“The FBI has already investigated and determined that there is no evidence of a conspiracy or grand plan,” he said. “I don’t believe in collective guilt.”

After killing several Republicans in Wyoming, Cheney highlighted his record that he voted with Trump more than 93% of the time, according to the website FiveThirtyEight and his opposition to Biden at all from the removal of US from Afghanistan to energy issues, gun rights, border security and government spending.

A spokesman for Cheney declined requests for comment. Last week, Cheney told local reporters, “I’ll run with what I’ve made and delivered for the people of Wyoming.”

The congressman also went on the offensive, saying Hageman was sworn in as a member of the Wyoming Bar, and “abandoning that principle, sacrificing that curse, neglecting his duty to the people of Wyoming to pledge allegiance to Donald Trump . “

Some Wyoming Republicans told CNN they admire Cheney and will continue to support him.

“He stood up to Trump when that was needed,” Scott said. “He had the courage to do that.”

“He stood by his country, his oath, the Constitution and his heart, and he stood by the cult of personality that is pushing a wedge in the Republican Party,” GOP state Senator Cale Case added. “He’s smart, brave and a patriot.”

But pro-Trump forces have lined up against him.

‘Wyoming is in my blood’

Hageman, an attorney who has challenged the federal government about water and natural resource rights, has run for public office statewide previously, finishing third in Wyoming’s top Republican for governor of 2018. His the family has been in the state for many generations; his father, the late state Rep. James Hageman, is a longtime legislator. Reflecting on his race, he recalled how he felt looking at the crowd during his campaign launch, and seeing his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.

“I think I was born and raised for this moment in time, and to protect the future for those people,” Hageman said. “I spent most of my adult life, more than my professional career, fighting for and protecting Wyoming.”

“Wyoming is in my blood,” he added. “I’m Wyoming.”

As a sign of the strength of his candidacy, three House GOP candidates Air Force veteran Bryan Miller, Cheyenne businessman Darin Smith, and state Rep. Chuck Gray suspended their campaigns in the House after he jumped into the race with Trump’s endorsement.

“Liz Cheney has to go,” Smith said.

Wyoming’s two GOP senators don’t seem to be helping Cheney either, even though they serve alongside the congressman. Senator John Barrasso told CNN that he plans to remain neutral in what he hopes will be a “enthusiastic” major contest, noting that “the President has made an endorsement; that will have an impact.”

In his endorsement, Trump said Hageman also has the “support and respect” of Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, though Lummis told CNN she has no “idea” if she will endorse a career candidate. Senator’s spokesman Darin Miller, told CNN, “While Senator Lummis is not making an endorsement right now, he believes President Trump has made an inspired choice in supporting Harriet Hageman.”

However, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard and several other House GOP candidates remained in the race. Some Trump supporters were disappointed that the former President chose Hageman, citing his involvement with Cheney’s leadership team in his brief Senate campaign in 2014, donations to Cheney’s congressional campaigns and photos of two women at different events. In 2013, Hageman defended Cheney, telling The Associated Press that his family has a long history in Wyoming and that criticism of his upbringing in Virginia was a “distraction” from Senate race issues.

But after Cheney’s behavior last year, Hageman’s tone changed.

“Supporting him in the past, I think is completely and utterly betrayed in what he did,” Hageman told CNN. “He betrayed Wyoming. He betrayed my country. And he betrayed me.”

-CNN-Wire ™ and © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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