Report: Liz Cheney Faces ‘Almost Certain Defeat’ Because of Her Obsession with Fighting Donald Trump

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Vice Chair of the House Select Comm
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is facing extreme headwinds leading into the August 23 GOP primary after fixating on former President Donald Trump’s personality and America First policies, a report outlines.

While multiple polls show Cheney massively trailing Trump-endorsed opponent Harriet Hageman, Cheney’s “obsessed” drive to combat the former president in Mar-a-Lago has spoiled her political future, Ed Kilgore at New York Magazine believes.

“You could argue that Cheney’s reelection goose was cooked January 13, 2021, the day she voted for Trump’s second impeachment,” Kilgore wrote Monday. “But her descent from the House Republican leadership to almost certain defeat in an August 16 primary in Wyoming has had a number of dramatic moments.”

Those moments include the Wyoming Republican Party and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy renouncing Cheney. The Wyoming GOP voted in November to no longer recognize her as a Republican, and McCarthy announced in February his endorsement of Hageman to defeat Cheney.

Cheney has also allied herself with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) partisan January 6 Committee, which polling shows has hurt Cheney among Wyoming voters. Fifty-four percent of voters are less likely to support Cheney after tangling with Trump on the committee.

“By the time the January 6 committee finalizes its report in August or later,” Kilgore continued, “Cheney will be the most famous and (in some circles) revered lame duck in Congress and a symbol of both defeat and defiance for those Republicans who were present on January 6.”

Cheney’s “almost certain defeat” has caused her to solicit votes from Democrats and raise money from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton donors. “I strongly support Congresswoman Cheney’s bid for re-election,” film producer and Democrat elitist Jeffrey Katzenberg told the New York Times about his donation of at least $43,000.
CHEYENNE, WY - JANUARY 28: A man holds up a sign against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to a crowd during a rally against her on January 28, 2021 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Gaetz added his voice to a growing effort to vote Cheney out of office after she voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

File/A man holds up a sign against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to a crowd during a rally against her on January 28, 2021 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Gaetz added his voice to a growing effort to vote Cheney out of office after she voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

“I’m resolved to do everything possible to send a strong message by keeping her in Congress,” he added. “We need to stand behind Liz and send a rebuke to the most extreme factions in the Republican Party.”

But many Wyoming voters dislike Cheney’s alliance with Democrats in Washington, DC. “She doesn’t live here, for starters. She doesn’t really represent us,” voter Sally O’Brien told Yahoo News of Cheney. “She says she’s a constitutionalist, but she doesn’t believe in justice for all, only for the Jan. 6 people.”

Former Cheney donor, Nancy Donovan, who has donated thousands of dollars to Cheney’s past campaigns, is now questioning Cheney’s mental state. “I sit there watching the January 6 hearings and I think: ‘Have you lost your mind?’” she told the Financial Times.

“This man [Trump] has every major institution going after him, from the media to the swamp in Washington, DC, and now to have one of his own party do the same thing?” she said.

Brad Coker, managing director of the polling firm Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, stated Friday that Cheney will lose the August 16 primary against Hageman. “The big story is Liz Cheney is going to get beat,” Coker reflected. “That’s a foregone conclusion,” Coker said before noting Cheney has failed to persuade voters that the race is more about Trump than Cheney’s obsession with Trump.

“This race is more about Liz Cheney than it is about Donald Trump,” he said.

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

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