Liz Cheney, Likely To Lose House GOP Leadership Post, Also Facing Serious Challenge Back In Wyoming
Rep. Liz Cheney is almost likely to lose her number-three GOP leadership spot next week – and Cheney is facing another big problem in Wyoming, where Republicans are plotting to replace her as the state’s sole representative in Congress when she runs for re-election in 2022.
Cheney, the most high-profile of the ten GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach the then-President Don in January over allegations of inciting a riot on Capitol Hill, is facing primary challenges from a growing number of Republican candidates. But t hat, on the other hand, may be Cheney’s saving grace as anti-Cheney and pro-Trump votes are expected to be split by a packed field.
The daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, was once a rising star in the Republican Party but her impeachment vote over Trump’s involvement in the Capitol Hill chaos and her outspoken condemnation of the former president’s claims of fraud during the 2020 election has made her a political outcast and is now at the forefront of Trump’s list of Republican foes.
POLITICS: Liz Cheney, likely to lose House GOP leadership job, also facing serious challenge back in Wyoming https://t.co/5WlKUC2ILv pic.twitter.com/NrIkYmiWL6
— U-S-NEWS.COM (@us_news_com) May 7, 2021
Trump earlier encouraged his followers to “get rid” of Cheney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February, telling his audience that “hopefully they’ll get rid of her for the next election.”
He cautioned against dividing the anti-Cheney vote earlier this week, saying in a statement that “her best chance will be if large numbers of voters ran against her, which, luckily, won’t happen.”
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, also warned against several primary challengers.
The younger Trump spoke at an anti-Cheney rally in Wyoming, saying stressing the importance of “not splitting this vote and blowing a chance to get rid of a RINO,” which is an acronym for Republican in name only.
According to a person familiar with Donald Trump Jr.’s mindset, “getting rid of Liz Cheney is at the top of his priority list for 2022.”
“You can count on him to be fully invested in the race.”
“While he and his father have yet to settle on a single candidate, it is likely that they will do so sooner rather than later. They are looking forward to bringing the group together in Wyoming,” the source added.Added the source.
“While he and his father have yet to settle on a single candidate, it is likely that they will do so sooner rather than later. They are looking forward to bringing the group together in Wyoming,” the source added.
Businessman Darin Smith, state senator Chuck Gray, and state Sen. Anthony Bouchard – who has so far fundraised $400,000 since starting his campaign a few months ago – are among the GOP candidates being eyed by Trump’s team to back against Cheney.
According to polls conducted by Trump’s pollster and Club for Development, Cheney will face a difficult renomination if she faces a single primary challenger.
The Club for Growth’s political arm is reportedly sifting through prospective Cheney challengers, recently visiting Wyoming to meet and interview over a dozen people.
“We’re definitely spending a lot of effort making sure we get the right person to run to challenge Cheney,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in an interview with Fox News.
The Club is also dispatching a top official this week to Wyoming to meet with potential challengers to Liz Cheney, another impeachment backers. Club prez David McIntosh has been in touch with Trump https://t.co/CWqY8tdMPP
— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) March 22, 2021
McIntosh said his “goal is to create unity” with Trump’s political team and with the Wyoming GOP, which censured Cheney earlier this year, in order to “narrow down to a couple of different potential candidates.”
He noted that the Club for Growth’s PAC “will bundle contributions” from its donors across the country.”
“I can’t tell you the number of them who have already called me and said ‘when will you give us a candidate in Wyoming. We want to contribute to that person,’” McIntosh added. “We’ll spend what it takes to win.”
Smith, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 in an open seat race won by Cheney, said he’s “seriously considering making a run” again and that “if we get in, it will be soon.”
Smith noted that he’s “America First all the way,” and that “if I were to get in and he (Trump) were to endorse me, that would just be over the top.”
