Cheney’s pro-Trump opponent runs on 2020 results

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By Alex Rogers, CNN

If Rep. Liz Cheney is purged from the Republican Party, it will likely be in the hands of Harriet hageman.

Hageman, the former member of the Wyoming Republican National Committee, launched his campaign last week, emphasizing his deep roots in the state, his conservative values and his alliance with former President Donald Trump, who has targeted Cheney after the MP publicly refuted her false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and held him responsible for the deadly violence on Capitol Hill on January 6.

In an interview, Hageman called Trump “the leader of the party” and questioned the integrity of the last election. She repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won and said: “I think there are legitimate questions about what happened in the 2020 election.”

When asked what questions she had, Hageman pointed to the audits carried out by Republicans in Arizona and Georgia. She said the public “will know more when these reports are released.”

Hageman said, “The legitimate questions are, ‘What happened? “”

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. But the 2022 Wyoming House race could still determine how Republicans answer Hageman’s question, as the party decides whether or not to believe in a conspiracy.

Cheney called Trump’s continued efforts to claim victory a “big lie” that poses a “grave threat to democracy” in the hope that Republicans will turn the page on him. She was recently appointed vice-chairman of the House select committee investigation into the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

But she’s playing on Trump’s court: In 2020, nearly 70 percent of Wyoming voters backed him, more than any other state in the country, while Cheney received nearly 69 percent.

Even some Cheney supporters wonder if she will win the race, as other Republican candidates drop out to unite behind Hageman.

“I think it will be close,” said Wyoming state senator Charles Scott, a longtime Republican lawmaker. “It’s not a sure thing anyway.”

Cheney breaks conservative record in attempt to save seat

Cheney was first elected to the House in 2016, after a life spent promoting hawkish foreign policy values, and quickly rose to the House GOP’s No.3 position. She is the daughter of the state’s favorite son, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who held his statewide seat from 1979 to 1989.

But Liz Cheney broke with the GOP base when she voted to impeach Trump in January for “incitement to insurgency.” After a pro-Trump mob raped the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory, it said Trump had “summoned,” “assembled” and “ignited the flame of this attack” and that ‘”There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.

The backlash in his party was swift. The Wyoming Republican Party censored her, saying “there hasn’t been a time in our tenure that we’ve seen this type of outcry from our fellow Republicans.” In May, her Republican colleagues in the House excluded her from her leadership role, lamenting that she continues to reject Trump’s false election claims in public rather than focusing all of her attention on Biden. Several Wyoming Republicans have launched campaigns to run against her, and some potential candidates, including Hageman, met Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, as he considered who to support.

Cheney’s vote will now be a clear contrast in the race. Hageman told CNN she “absolutely” would not have voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 riot, and that those who “raped or destroyed property should be held accountable for their own actions,” rather than the former president, who she said was not granted “due process.”

“The FBI has already investigated and concluded that there is no evidence of a conspiracy or a grand plan,” she said. “I don’t believe in collective guilt.

After shutting down some Wyoming Republicans, Cheney highlighted her track record – she voted with Trump more than 93% of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight website – and his opposition to Biden on everything from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to energy issues, gun rights, border security and government spending.

A spokesperson for Cheney declined requests for comment. Last week, Cheney told local reporters, “I will use what I produced and delivered for the people of Wyoming.

The MP also attacked, saying Hageman was sworn in as a member of the Wyoming Bar and “abandons this principle, sacrifices this oath, abandons his duty to the people of Wyoming in order to swear loyalty to Donald Trump.”

Some Wyoming Republicans have told CNN they admire Cheney and will continue to support her.

“She stood up to Trump when it needed to be done,” Scott said. “She had the courage to do it.

“She stood up for her country, her oath, the Constitution and her heart, and she stood up to the cult of personality that drove a wedge in the Republican Party,” GOP Senator Cale Case added. “She is smart, courageous and patriotic.”

But pro-Trump forces are lining up against it.

“Wyoming is in my blood”

Hageman, an attorney who has challenged the federal government over water and natural resource rights, has previously run for public office across the state, finishing third in Wyoming’s 2018 Republican primary for governor. His family has been in the state for generations; his father, the late State Representative James Hageman, was a longtime lawmaker. Reflecting on her run, she recalled how she felt watching the crowds at the launch of her campaign and seeing her siblings, nieces and nephews.

“I think I was born and raised for this exact moment, and that is to protect the future of these people,” Hageman said. “I have spent a large part of my adult life, a large part of my professional career, fighting and protecting Wyoming.”

“Wyoming is in my blood,” she added. “I am from Wyoming.”

As a sign of the strength of his candidacy, three House GOP candidates – Air Force veteran Bryan Miller, businessman Cheyenne Darin Smith and State Representative Chuck Gray – have suspended their House campaigns after entering the race with Trump’s approval.

“Liz Cheney has to go,” Smith said.

The two Wyoming GOP senators also don’t appear to be helping Cheney, even though they serve with the MP. Senator John Barrasso told CNN he plans to remain neutral in what he expects to be a “lively” primary competition, noting that “the president has lent his support; it will have an impact.

In her endorsement, Trump said Hageman also had “the support and respect” of Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, although Lummis told CNN she had “no idea” if she was going to support a candidate in the race. Senator spokesperson Darin Miller told CNN: “While Senator Lummis is not giving her endorsement at this time, she believes President Trump made an inspired choice in supporting Harriet Hageman.”

Still, State Senator Anthony Bouchard and a few other House GOP candidates remained in the race. Some Trump supporters were dismayed that the former president chose Hageman, citing his involvement in Cheney’s leadership team during his brief 2014 Senate campaign, Cheney’s Congressional campaign donations and photos of both. women at various events. In 2013, Hageman defended Cheney, telling the Associated Press that her family had a long history in Wyoming and that criticism of her upbringing in Virginia was a “distraction” from the problems of the Senate race.

But after Cheney’s conduct for the past year or so, Hageman’s tone has changed.

“Having supported her in the past, I feel completely and utterly betrayed by what she has done,” Hageman told CNN. “She betrayed Wyoming. She betrayed my country. And she betrayed me.

CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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