Poll: Liz Cheney’s Political Support Collapses in Wyoming as Primary Challenger Takes Double-Digit Lead

Cheney
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House GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has seen her political support completely collapse in Wyoming as solid majorities of both Republicans and all voters in the state want her out of office, a new poll shows.

What’s more, Cheney has fallen behind her primary challenger by more than double digits, a sharp turn in just weeks against the one-time rising star since she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.

The poll, conducted by Trump’s team and first reported by Politico, shows 73 percent of Republicans in ruby red Wyoming view her unfavorably—while 62 percent of all voters in the state similarly view her unfavorably.

Only 10 percent of GOP voters, and 13 percent of all voters, say they would vote to reelect her, and she trails by more than 30 points—54 percent to 21 percent—against state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who has announced a campaign against her since her impeachment vote.

The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted by Trump’s pollster John McLaughlin from Jan. 25 to Jan. 26, as revealed in a memo that McLaughlin wrote to Trump adviser Jason Miller.

“Liz Cheney’s decision to vote to impeach President Trump makes her extremely vulnerable,” McLaughlin wrote. “It is evident her ratings are in bad shape among general election voters and have collapsed among Republicans and Trump voters.”

Cheney has seen her fortunes crash not just in Wyoming—where at least one fellow U.S. House Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), traveled to campaign against her—but in the U.S. House GOP conference as well.

As Breitbart News previously reported, more than half of the GOP conference have signed a petition saying they would vote on a secret ballot to oust her as chair. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, has said he supports her staying in the position but believes she has to answer for her actions. McCarthy opposed the impeachment that Cheney supported.

Nine other House Republicans also voted to impeach Trump in his final week in office, and McLaughlin wrote in his survey memo to Miller that he believes while Cheney has the highest profile and appears to be paying the biggest political price for it, a similar trend could hold across the board.

“The strong voter sentiment in this survey suggests there could be similar results for other Republicans who voted for impeachment,” McLaughlin wrote.

The U.S. Senate is set to take up the trial on the article of impeachment that the House adopted in early February. The House delivered the article to the Senate this week, and swore in senators as jurors in the trial.

After that swearing in, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) forced a vote on the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial of a former president—arguing that there should not even be a trial, as Trump is no longer in office.

While the measure failed as expected, 45 Republicans out of 50—the overwhelming majority of the conference in the Senate—sided with Paul’s measure, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. That means it is very unlikely that the Senate would get the necessary 17 GOP votes to convict Trump—with all 50 Democrats voting to convict, 17 Republicans would need to join them in order to hit the Senate’s 67-vote threshold to convict an impeached official—which means that the Democrat Senate is proceeding with a measure they know is all but certain to fail.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)—failed 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton’s running mate—on Wednesday questioned the wisdom of that, saying that he thinks the Democrat Senate could be doing something more productive with its time.

“To do a trial knowing you’ll get 55 votes at the max seems to me to be not the right prioritization of our time. Obviously, we do a trial. Maybe we can do it fast, but my top priority is COVID relief and getting the Biden cabinet approved,” Kaine said.

Nonetheless, the Democrat Senate majority is moving forward with the impeachment trial—and kicking coronavirus relief to the curb to be revisited later, perhaps in March.

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