Trump-Endorsed Harriet Hageman Projected to Defeat Liz Cheney in Wyoming Republican Primary

JACKSON, WY - JUNE 14: Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman listens to Donal
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Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman on Tuesday is projected to defeat incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in Wyoming’s Republican primary with four percent reporting.

Cheney’s projected loss is the eighth of ten pro-impeachment Republicans to exit Congress and solidifies the 2021 impeachment vote as one of the most career-wrecking votes in congressional history.

Hageman’s likely victory is of little surprise after Cheney allied herself with Democrats to fight former President Donald Trump on the partisan January 6 Committee.

In May of 2021, Cheney was ousted from GOP leadership by a vote of no confidence in the wake of voting to impeach the former president. Cheney’s explosion reverberated nearly two thousand miles away in her home state. The Wyoming Republican Party voted in November of 2021 to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.

Several months later, in February, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced his historic endorsement of Hageman over Cheney. Party leaders usually never endorse against sitting members of Congress. But after Cheney worked against Republicans and reportedly “orchestrated unprecedented” Republican sabotage, McCarthy presumably believed Cheney must be removed from Congress.

“Liz Cheney has lost Wyoming. Liz Cheney doesn’t live in Wyoming. She doesn’t represent us,” Hageman told Breitbart News in January. “She doesn’t represent our values.”

Though Cheney lost the support of many GOP colleagues and Wyoming voters, she was able to find solace among the rich and famous establishment uniparty. During her reelection campaign, Cheney solicited votes from Democrats and won endorsements from Hollywood elites, such as actor Kevin Costner. She also raised money from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama donors.

In total, Cheney outraised Hageman by a nearly three to one ratio ($15 million), with much of the money flowing from out-of-staters. Cheney only raised about $386,000 from Wyoming donors, far short of Hageman’s in-state donations. Hageman raised about $940,000 from Wyoming donors for a total of $4.5 million in campaign contributions.

Cheney’s closing message to Wyoming voters, who overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2020, was to claim Trump manipulated “Americans to abandon their principles.” That talking point came a week after her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, cut an ad for his daughter that slammed Trump for being a “coward.” Dick Cheney’s ad did not mention the state of Wyoming once but did mention Trump six times.

The establishment media echoed Liz Cheney’s anti-Trump narrative for months heading into the last weeks of the primary election, despite June polling that found she was losing to Hageman by 30 points. Two more July polls confirmed the incumbent was in deep trouble against Hageman. An August poll among likely Republican voters showed Cheney was losing by 57 points.

In the closing week of the primary battle, Breitbart News reported Cheney’s net worth ballooned from an estimated $7 million when she first took office in 2017 to possibly more than $44 million in 2020.

News also came to light that Cheney’s husband, Philip Perry, is a partner at a law firm that represents Hunter Biden in the Department of Justice’s grand jury probe regarding “tax issues.” Perry holds between a $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 million dollar stake in the firm, Latham & Watkins, according to Cheney’s 2020 Personal Financial Disclosure. Latham & Watkins has also advised a Chinese Communist Party-linked technology company named TME and Exelon Corporation.

By the time the GOP primary rolled around, the deeply embattled member of the Cheney family dynasty had only a three cents on the dollar chance of returning to Congress in 2023, PredictIt odds revealed.

“I feel very proud about all the work I’ve done together with the people of Wyoming over the last six years,” CBS News reported Cheney’s comment Tuesday afternoon.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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