Illustration by Eliza Anderson, Deseret Information
As Liz Cheney gave her defiant concession speech Tuesday night time, after a bruising 37-point loss to her Republican main opponent Harriet Hageman, her mother and father, former Vice President Dick Cheney and second girl, Lynne, seemed on from their seats on the picturesque Mead Ranch, exterior Jackson, Wyoming.
Liz is inheritor to the Cheney political legacy within the state, however that wasn’t sufficient to assist her overcome her very public battle with former President Donald Trump. As Cheney stated in her speech, “I'll do no matter it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn't once more wherever close to the Oval Workplace.”
Whereas many cheered her for what they noticed as braveness for being one of many few Republican lawmakers who was keen to publicly tackle Trump, in a state he gained with 70% of the vote in 2020, that message didn’t land effectively. Whereas the Cheney identify helped propel Liz to workplace in Wyoming, it wasn’t sufficient to assist her overcome the notion that she was out of contact with the individuals she was elected to symbolize — a notion that has dogged her since she first declared her intention to run for workplace within the state.
And whereas Cheney misplaced resoundingly to Trump-backed Hageman, in one of many worst main losses for an incumbent in fashionable political historical past, Trump solely had combined success within the state together with his different endorsements. The Trump-backed candidate for state superintendent misplaced his race, whereas incumbent Gov. Mark Gordon beat his main challenger, despite the fact that he’d publicly tangled with Trump.
Bob Beck, who has lined Wyoming politics for nearly 40 years, most of that point for Wyoming Public Radio, stated Gordon was profitable as a result of he “received out and talked to individuals.”
Whereas, undoubtedly, Cheney misplaced her race as a result of “Wyoming is a state that basically, actually loves Donald Trump,” stated Beck, it’s additionally true that Cheney “hasn’t been round a lot since she was elected.”
“I feel that’s all the time been a knock on her, that she doesn’t come again usually,” he stated.
Beck stated when she did come again, she tended to go to locations the place she knew she wouldn’t encounter a lot opposition. In the meantime, Hageman, daughter of a well-liked former state legislator, is taken into account a “Wyoming lady.”
His observations about Liz Cheney had been echoed by Lincoln County GOP Chair Marti Halverson, a former state lawmaker and RNC nationwide committeewoman.
“I do know she did have loads of conferences right here within the state,” stated Halverson. “They had been non-public, invitation-only, and really unique. I don’t understand how efficient that's in rallying the voter base.”
When requested whether or not the Cheneys nonetheless held political energy within the state, Halverson pointed to the votes Cheney obtained on election night time.
“She did get 29% of the vote, so the Cheney household will nonetheless have some affect right here,” she stated.
However, in the end, Halverson attributed Cheney’s loss to “her failure to symbolize the 70% of Wyoming Republicans who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.”
In an election yr when Republican voters appear decided to punish institution candidates who defied Trump, Cheney simply didn’t have sufficient private reputation to beat what some within the get together noticed as a betrayal when she took up the struggle towards Trump on the Jan. 6 committee.
Whereas the Cheneys have been a part of the Republican institution in Wyoming for many years, beginning with Dick Cheney’s 10 years — from 1979 till 1989 — as Wyoming’s lone congressman, Liz Cheney has needed to struggle off accusations of carpetbagging since she determined to enter Wyoming politics in 2013. She had largely grown up in Virginia, and solely moved again to the state not lengthy earlier than she introduced her choice to run.
It additionally didn’t assist, stated Beck, that for her first foray into politics she selected to run within the Republican main towards the late Sen. Mike Enzi, then a well-liked incumbent.
“She was attempting to push out a really good man who lots of people appreciated,” he stated. “Again then you definitely didn’t run towards incumbents. That received her soured with some individuals.”
Cheney ended up dropping her main run, saying it was due to well being points in her household. She was additionally trailing Enzi badly within the polls, regardless of sturdy help from her father.
Even when he was vice chairman, Dick Cheney stored a hand in Wyoming politics. He stepped in to assist then-Republican Congresswoman Barbara Cubin out of a political scandal after she stated she’d prefer to slap a wheelchair-bound opponent in 2006. Cubin seemed like she was going to lose the usually-safe seat for Republicans till Cheney flew to Wyoming to marketing campaign for her, serving to to push her simply previous her Democratic opponent in that yr’s normal election.
Dick Cheney’s persevering with reputation probably helped Liz in 2016, when she made her first profitable run for workplace, successful the at-large congressional seat in Wyoming that was as soon as her father’s. She gained two subsequent elections, however barring a run within the normal election as an unbiased, Liz Cheney will now not maintain that seat after the 2022 midterms.
In protection of his daughter this yr, Dick Cheney got here out swinging towards Trump in an advert he made for her marketing campaign.
“In our nation’s 246 yr historical past, there has by no means been a person who's a higher risk to our republic than Donald Trump,” stated Cheney. “He's a coward. An actual man wouldn’t mislead his supporters. He misplaced his election and he misplaced massive. I do know it, he is aware of it, and deep down I feel most Republicans realize it.”
Liz Cheney has vowed to hold on the struggle towards Trump. A Cheney spokesman instructed Politico this week that Cheney would launch a company to arrange opposition to Donald Trump. The morning after her loss, Cheney instructed NBC she was occupied with working for president, whether or not as a Republican or an unbiased.
Whereas she clearly has nationwide ambitions, in Wyoming Liz Cheney’s quest for public workplace is probably going achieved, ending for now the Cheney dynasty within the state.