Cheyenne: Republican dissident Liz Cheney looks set to lose her US Congress seat Tuesday to an election-denying conspiracy theorist, in the latest signal of her party’s disavowal of traditional conservatism in favor of Donald Trump’s hardline “America First” movement. Once considered Republican royalty, the lawmaker from Wyoming has become a pariah in the party over her role on the congressional panel pursuing Trump over the plot to overthrow the last election that culminated in the 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
All eyes are on the Wyoming Republican primary, where defeat for the 56-year-old elder daughter of Republican grandee and former vice president Dick Cheney would mark the end of the family’s four-decade political association with one of America’s most conservative states.
Even her loyal backers have privately accepted that Cheney will likely lose to 59-year-old lawyer Harriet Hageman Trump’s hand-picked candidate who has amplified his false claims of a “rigged” 2020 election. The latest survey from the local Casper Star-Tribune has Cheney with just 30 percent support compared with 52 percent for Hageman, reflecting all recent polling.