![]() ![]() Though Wyoming’s GOP has been fractured by warring factions, one thing that has broadly united those factions is support for Trump. The makings for a divorce from Cheney were immediately evident. Stubson said she was on course to do so again, until the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, when Cheney became a leading critic of Trump’s actions and defender of the integrity of the 2020 election. She was cast as too close to the establishment by some rivals, and as a carpetbagger by others – including Tim Stubson, a former state lawmaker who now supports Cheney.īut, she was by far the best-known candidate in the race thanks to the decade her father spent representing Wyoming in Congress prior to becoming secretary of defense and later, vice president.Ĭheney had coasted to reelection since then, largely because she had not broken with conservatives on major issues. Wyoming Republicans’ reservations about Cheney were first evident in 2016, when she won her House seat after winning just 39% of the vote in the GOP primary against a fractured field. In pictures: Embattled Congresswoman Liz Cheney “In Wyoming, we don’t necessarily embrace the idea of a big tent,” Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne said on Fox earlier this year. But the conservative faction has seized control of the state Republican Party and many of its local organizations. Mark Gordon, a part of that wing, won Tuesday. The establishment wing retains some power in Wyoming. The state’s GOP, with no real competition from Democrats, has divided into two factions, with a more moderate establishment wing butting heads with a more conservative faction that has increasingly wrested away control. And in some cases, the seeds were planted during the factional battles within the Wyoming GOP that date back to the tea party era, when Cheney was still a resident of Virginia. The roots of Cheney’s loss were planted long before Tuesday’s primary. “It took a lot of courage to stand against the Republican Party and Donald Trump.” “I think she stood up for what she believes in,” said John Grant, a Republican who cast his ballot for Cheney, even though he suspected she would fall short. That’s a drop of about 15,000 registered Democrats from early 2021, but the pool of party-switchers, along with a fall-off of more than 3,000 independent voters who likely became Republicans, was nowhere near large enough to save Cheney from defeat in a Republican Party that had turned against her. Wyoming has more than 215,000 registered Republicans compared to just 36,000 registered Democrats, according to data from the secretary of state’s office. Her campaign sent information to registered Democrats in Wyoming about how to change their party registration, and in interviews across the state in the lead-up to the election, a number of Democrats did say they were voting for Cheney.īut the Cowboy State’s electorate is almost entirely Republican. Bloomberg was first to report the call.Ĭheney attempted to assemble a coalition of Democrats, independents and moderate and anti-Trump Republicans – many of them ideological opponents of the neoconservative congresswoman before the last 19 months – to save her seat. President Joe Biden called Cheney following her primary loss, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to divulge the contents of the conversation. Primaries in recent months have also brought into focus the role a handful of prominent Republicans, including Cheney and former Vice President Mike Pence, are seeking to play in moving the GOP beyond Trump and his election denialism.īut Wyoming’s results on Tuesday demonstrated the long odds those Trump critics face in a party in which the former President remains the most dominant figure and is teasing a third run for the White House in 2024. Candidates backed by the former President have positioned themselves to take over the election machinery in a series of key states if they win in November. Trump-aligned candidates have won primaries for governor in swing states such as Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and Senate in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Three takeaways from primaries in WyomingĬheney’s ouster caps a summer in which Trump has purged the GOP of many of his critics, while elevating candidates – including Hageman – who have parroted his lies about widespread election fraud. Cheney lost to challenger Harriet Hageman in the primary. ![]() 16, 2022, at a primary Election Day gathering at Mead Ranch in Jackson, Wyo. ![]()
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