Liz Cheney Is More Than 25 Points Down, and It’s About More Than Just Trump – Opinion

Six years ago Liz Cheney and Donald Trump were elected simultaneously. Cheney has consistently won with more than 60 percent of the vote in Wyoming’s At-Large House district races, and in 2020, she almost topped 70 percent, just shy of then-President Donald Trump’s percentage of the vote in that election.

In the years that have passed since 2020, Cheney has been a tireless advocate for Trump’s prosecution, which culminated in her involvement in the hearings of the January 6 Committee. Along with Adam Kinzinger an anti-Trump Republican, her mission was to inform America about Trump’s misfortunes and his insurrectionist nature. Her mission is to convince Republicans Trump is poison.

In the wake of her crusade, Harriet Hageman, a former Cheney ally, is running to take Cheney’s spot in Wyoming’s lone Congressional seat. Hageman is clearly doing a good job of convincing Wyoming primary voters to do so – she is up 29 points in the latest University of Wyoming poll and averaging more than 25 points in the RealClearPolitics average. Even though disgraced senator Al Franken supports Cheney’s cause, the UW poll shows that not enough Democratic crossover votes exist to save Cheney.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

You could easily say this was a case of pro-Trump against anti-Trump, and claim that Trump still controls the party at its base level. This is not the only thing that should be considered. And, it’s something that even CNN has picked up on.

Yet here in Wyoming, Hageman is seen as far more than Trump’s hand-picked candidate.

She grew up on her family’s small ranch near Fort Laramie, population 207, not far from the state’s border with Nebraska. Long before her fight with Cheney, Hageman gained prominence as a natural resources attorney, specializing on cases protecting the state’s water, public lands and agriculture.

[…]

Hageman declined to answer questions when CNN caught up with her in Rock Springs, a coal mining town in the southwestern part of the state, saying only: “This race is about Wyoming, nothing else.”

The race is now about much more. A number of Wyoming voters said this week that they appreciate the time Hageman spent on energy and agricultural issues.

Liz Cheney’s focus has been on Washington D.C., which has led to her losing the ability to communicate with Wyoming voters. Hageman, on the other hand, has a history of working for issues that are important to Wyoming voters. Although she has been in Wyoming, Cheney is preaching to primetime TV that the candidate that 70 percent of voters voted in was bad and the Republicans that he supported were bad. Hageman made the following statement about her state.

So-called “moderate” Republicans have constantly made this mistake. Cheney is undoubtedly keen to get reelected and feels she’s doing what is right by attacking Trump. (We can argue whether it is right at this time). The problem with her attack on Trump is that she’s also attacking the state’s voters. The people of Wyoming don’t like the implication that they are a threat to democracy if they support Trump.

“Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution,” Cheney said, not too long ago, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California. This rhetoric alienates the people she elected to office. She can be as unhappy as she wants about what her voters believe or don’t believe, but Donald Trump isn’t doing this to her. Trump is already doing this to her.

It’s one thing to have voted for impeachment. It’s another to throw away the support your state has had for you by repeatedly attacking them through their support of Trump. While you can argue that it is important to continue moving forward, your whole existence should not be about Trump. Several Republicans have proven it’s possible. It’s not the right way to win the votes needed to keep your seat in the House by joining the Democrat Party attack on the whole Republican base.

When you try to be a moderate, you end up telling both sides that they shouldn’t vote for you, and the majority of those who aren’t aligned with a particular party choose their sides based on what the parties have done or haven’t done. The current policies and current affairs have influenced most voters’ choices. Fewer voters base their decisions on Washington D.C.’s political climate.

Cheney chose D.C. instead of Wyoming. As a result, she’s staring down a humiliating defeat, though she’ll call it martyrdom rather than embarrassment.

About Post Author

Follow Us