Rep. Liz Cheney Defeated by Trump-Backed Candidate Harriet Hageman in Wyoming Republican Primary

Liz Cheney chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House GOP leadership, from 2019 to 2021 — but lost support in her own party when she became critical of Donald Trump

Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney lost her bid for reelection, in a stunning — but not entirely unexpected — defeat in a Tuesday primary race. Attorney Harriet Hageman, who earned the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, won the Republican primary.

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is a longtime Republican who found herself the target of ire by Trump — whom she voted to impeach following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — and his supporters.

As it became evident she could not win, Cheney, 56, spoke to her supporters and staff telling them their work “wasn’t over” and made it clear who she blamed for her defeat.

A clear path to reelection “would’ve required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election,” she said. “It would’ve required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic.

“That was a path I could not and would not take.”

Prior to her loss, Cheney tweeted she was “proud to cast my ballot today.”

“The challenges we are facing require serious leaders who will abide by their oath and uphold the Constitution- no matter what,” the Republican wrote.

Proud to cast my ballot today. The challenges we are facing require serious leaders who will abide by their oath and uphold the Constitution- no matter what. pic.twitter.com/PcTXUR6Aw1

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 16, 2022

Cheney worked for the State Department before launching a failed Senate bid in 2014. In 2016, she launched another campaign, this time for the House of Representatives, where she was successful, and ultimately elected with more than 60% of the vote.

She chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House GOP leadership, from 2019 to 2021, but she lost support from those in her own party in recent years.

Republicans in Wyoming voted to strip Cheney of her party affiliation last November, following her attempts to hold accountable the former president and his supporters for the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the myriad attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

By 2022, she found herself fighting an uphill battle to reelection, and was running in a primary against a group of candidates who sided with Trump, 76, in saying that the 2020 was “rigged and stolen.”

Ahead of the primary on Tuesday, Cheney released her final ad campaign in her bid to earn the GOP’s nomination for House of Representatives, in which she condemned the lies surrounding the 2020 presidential elections.

“America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth,” Cheney said in the video. “The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen in insidious, it preys on those who love their country, it is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”

Talking to the citizens of her state and across the country, Cheney affirmed that while the lies make up former President Trump’s legacy, “it cannot be the future of our nation.” She continued, explaining that history has proven that “poisonous lies destroy free nations.”

Earlier this month Liz’s father made a statement of his own against Trump.

In the video, the longtime politician, 81, called Trump a “coward,” adding: “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”

Cheney serves as the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots, a role she has said “may be the most important thing I ever do.”