Bad Blood: Rand Paul tries to thwart a race in the Senate of Liz Cheney

Rand Paul began his offensive against Liz Cheney as soon as he opened a Senate seat in May, renewing a year-long feud between their families and the warring wings of the Republican Party.

The Kentucky GOP Senator quickly contacted Cynthia Lummis, a former member of the Conservative House of Representatives, to encourage her to run for the Senate opening in Wyoming, now that Mike Enzi is taking his place. retirement.

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The Lummis quickly got into the race, leaving Cheney, his congressional successor, with a tough choice: to engage in a brutal primal against the Lummis or take the safer route and seek his fortune in the direction of the Bedroom.

It was only the beginning of Paul's slugfest with Cheney. This included a fierce Twitter exchange on foreign policy, dueling appearances on Sunday and a very unusual call from Paul in a Casper TV channel in the Wyo. To assert that Wyoming Republicans are "tired" of Cheney's support for nation-building abroad.

Cheney, the No. 3 Republican of the House just in her second term, responded with her own show of force. She said she was looking forward to having dinner with President Donald Trump that night.

Cheney's claim that Paul surrendered "to the terrorists" and Paul's answer that Cheney is a "NeverTrump Warmer" was, in the words of the Senate Majority Whip, John Thune (RS. D.), "A strange and wild product".

The bad mood between the Cheneys and Pauls goes back a long time. Fathers, former representative Ron Paul and former Vice President Dick Cheney were on the opposite sides of the war in Iraq. Dick Cheney supported Rand Paul's main opponent in 2010. Since his election, he has supported Liz Cheney's challenger in each of his congressional races.

"Rand likes to fight, that's his way of doing things," said Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), Who occupies the position of Speaker in the Cheney House of Representatives, but is neutral on the race to Wyoming Senate.

But the battle is much more than personal beef. It's a glimpse of a divisive Senate primary; a public demonstration of long-standing efforts to influence Trump's cowardly political views; and a test on how best to claim the Trump coat in a party whose cleavages have been filled since the White House victory in 2016.

A safe red state is the perfect place to play everything, with the Lummis as a substitute for Paul's imperialist conservatism against Cheney's ambitious ambition at home and abroad.

"Cynthia Lummis will be the next US Senator from Wyoming. Yes [Cheney] Republican short in the country, "Paul said in an interview. "She will have to decide if she wants to match Conservative credentials with someone who actually lives in Wyoming and has spent all her life there."

Cheney's allies mock Paul's early intervention in the race and insist that it will not affect his decision-making. In fact, they say his aggressive maneuvers could turn against a state where GOP voters have hugged Trump tightly. They point out that Paul called it an "orange wind bag" and voted with Trump only 69% of the time for key votes, compared to 96% for Cheney, according to site 538.

According to a poll by GOP The Tarrance Group, Cheney led the Lummis by more than 20 points in a preliminary poll.

Although she has made no final decision and she is not supposed to do it for a few months, Republicans think she is likely to run in the Senate, according to interviews. with a dozen members of Congress and assistants. For the moment, Cheney only says that she "will do what is best for Wyoming". And even some of her closest allies do not know where she is going to land.

"She and I have talked about it a number of times," said Bradley Byrne, a friend of Cheney's friend who comes to the Senate in Alabama. "She would be an excellent senator, she would be an excellent speaker. I think that's the dilemma. "

Her decision will have a disproportionate effect on both the Senate, where she may one day mount in the race for the presidency, and on the House, where she is considered a future speaker. Many are already taking sides.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Looks forward to Cheney running, according to three sources close to his preference for the race. McConnell sees Cheney as a dynamic addition to his conference and a likely ally for his agenda. The Lummis were often in conflict with House leaders and sat in the caucus of the House of Defense, which was a tough party.

The hawkan republicans like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) And Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) also support Cheney.

"I do not know the other woman, I just know Liz," said Graham. "She would be an outstanding senator."

Yet the other "woman" also has a lot of supporters in the Senate, and she makes a not so subtle effort to get Cheney out of the race. In addition to Paul, Senators Mike Lee (Utah), Bill Cassidy (Asus) and Kevin Cramer (both support Lummis). In addition, many Senate Republicans are still disgusted by Cheney's failed primary campaign against Enzi six years ago.

"Liz could very well be the first female Republican Speaker of the House," said Cramer, adding that the state and the party would be stronger without a primary division. "If I was in Wyoming, I would have gone," that's it, we have the opportunity to have two superstars. "And if Liz does not [run for Senate]we do not do it. "

Cheney rose quickly in the House and sometimes chose a more conservative territory than the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – steps that could better position themselves to be elected one day.

If instead, Cheney decided to challenge the Lummis for the Senate, the debate would raise the Republican Party's division on foreign policy and the still moderate debate about whether Trump's worldview is closer to that Paul and the Lummis or Cheney.

Lummis told POLITICO that she "had received the encouragement of Senator Paul and a number of financially conservative Senators". And despite Cheney's leadership position, Lummis still has allies in the House, where she sat for almost ten years.

Conservative representative Mark Meadows, one of Trump's closest confidants on Capitol Hill, has already contributed to the Lummis campaign. Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Who supports a libertarian like Paul, said it was an "easy call" to support Lummis.

Some GOP lawmakers and assistants have interpreted the Cheney-Paul Twitter niche as an audition in front of an audience consisting of: Trump. If Cheney jumps in the race, it will undoubtedly be a battle for Trump's approval. His supporters in Congress do not know if Trump will intervene.

Cheney's allies, however, say they are ahead, drawing Trump's attention to Fox News as a fierce champion of the armed forces. At an event at the White House in July, the president praised Cheney, saying she had "a pretty boundless future."

Still, Lummis was also selected for the position of Secretary of the Interior, a sign that the President was right about a derogatory comment she had made during the 2016 campaign: she "got herself was holding his nose to vote for Trump.

Whoever wins, the Senate will be very different from the departure of the discreet Enzi. The Lummis could be a headache for the GOP leaders if she takes the same attitude of confrontation that she had in the House and joins Paul like a thorn in the back of McConnell.

And if Cheney wins, well, those who sit between her and Paul at the weekly Republican lunches will be better monitored.

"I do not think anyone can stab anyone," said Senator John Kennedy (R-La.), Unconvincingly.