Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost her seat in Congress to ...

Former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney is joining the University of Virginia's Center for Politics following her ouster from Congress by a Trump-backed candidate last year.

Cheney lost her congressional seat last year after she incurred the wrath of former President Donald Trump, who backed a primary challenger who ousted the one-time number 3 Republican in Congress.

Her loss was a stark sign of the grip the former president still holds over his party, as Republicans who disagree with Trump have found the party increasingly inhospitable.

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What will Cheney do?

Cheney will serve as a professor of practice for UVA in an inaugural appointment. She will teach through the fall 2023 semester, according to a press release.

Her duties include holding university-wide lectures and serving as a guest lecture and contributing to the center's politics research.

'Domestic threat':Liz Cheney says Republicans must abandon Donald Trump

What is Cheney saying?

“I am delighted to be joining the UVA Center for Politics as a Professor of Practice. Preserving our constitutional republic is the most important work of our time, and our nation’s young people will play a crucial role in this effort," said Cheney.

"I look forward to working with students and colleagues at the Center to advance the important work they and others at the University of Virginia are doing to improve the health of democracy here and around the world."

Why did Cheney lose her seat?

Cheney lost the Wyoming primary in August to Trump-backed Republican Harriet Hageman last year, after Trump retaliated against Cheney for voting to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Jan. 6 hearings:Rep. Liz Cheney calls Jan. 6 Capitol attack a 'conspiracy' and says threat is 'ongoing'

Cheney served as chair of the House Republican Conference–the third highest GOP post in the House—until May 2021. But she was removed from the position after Republicans booted her from leadership for excoriating Trump's involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

As vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee investigating Trump's role in the insurrection, Cheney continued her public persona as the most prominent Republican critic of the former president.

How Liz Cheney lost Wyoming's lone seat in the House | CNN Politics

Jackson, Wyoming CNN —

Rep. Liz Cheney’s supporters say her reelection hopes were doomed on January 13, 2021, when a week after the insurrection at the Capitol, she and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.

Everything since that day – Cheney’s role on the House select committee investigating the insurrection; her ads featuring her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, eviscerating Trump; her speeches attempting to steer the GOP away from Trump’s influence – only served Harriet Hageman’s victory in Wyoming’s primary for its lone House seat on Tuesday.

Cheney’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. 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. 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.

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.

But 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.

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. Bloomberg was first to report the call.

Cheney 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. 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.

But the Cowboy State’s electorate is almost entirely Republican. 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. 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.

“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. “It took a lot of courage to stand against the Republican Party and Donald Trump.”

‘Uneasy from the beginning’

The roots of Cheney’s loss were planted long before Tuesday’s primary. 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 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.

The establishment wing retains some power in Wyoming. Gov. Mark Gordon, a part of that wing, won Tuesday. But the conservative faction has seized control of the state Republican Party and many of its local organizations.

“In Wyoming, we don’t necessarily embrace the idea of a big tent,” Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne said on Fox earlier this year.

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. 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.

But, 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.

Cheney had coasted to reelection since then, largely because she had not broken with conservatives on major issues. 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.

The makings for a divorce from Cheney were immediately evident. Though Wyoming’s GOP has been fractured by warring factions, one thing that has broadly united those factions is support for Trump. He won Wyoming in 2020 by 43.3 percentage points over Biden – Trump’s largest margin of victory anywhere in the nation.

“Yes, there may have been an undercurrent there of anti-Liz sentiment, but there is no way she would have had any trouble getting elected,” Stubson said.

“Her relationship with that portion of the party has been uneasy from the beginning, and they probably never totally embraced her because she has been the definition of an establishment Republican. But she was right on the policies,” he said. “In my mind, it’s a sort of binary issue: If she votes for impeachment, it doesn’t matter what she does afterward.”

Voters say Cheney was too focused on Trump

While Trump’s shadow loomed large over the race, conversations with voters across Wyoming over the last week often came across with a sense of disappointment in Cheney, more than a burning sentiment of anger. Several people said they felt Cheney devoted far more time on national issues – to the detriment of her focusing on energy and natural resource priorities of critical importance to the state.

“I want Wyoming to be protected and I don’t feel Liz is doing that job,” said Jenille Thomas, who lives in the coal-mining town of Rock Springs in southwestern Wyoming.

For many Republican voters in Wyoming, though, it was Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump that spurred them to action.

Esther Egan, a 68-year-old who cleans houses and lives in Jackson, said she voted for Hageman because Cheney “bailed on us when we need her the most.”

“They can say whatever they want about Trump, but he did a damn good job. And then she turns tail,” Egan said. “She’s with Nancy Pelosi.”

Catherine Norsworthy, a 68-year-old homemaker in Jackson, said she switched from being an unaffiliated voter to a Republican to vote for Hageman, citing Trump’s endorsement of her.

“I’m not in favor of the January 6 hearings at all,” she said. “I didn’t like her voting against Trump. I’m very pro-Trump. I listen to him.”

U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Elaine Luria (D-VA) listen during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2022. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Going down swinging

Cheney was by far the most prominent of the 10 House Republicans to vote in January 2021 for Trump’s impeachment. She revealed her decision to do so the day before the House vote, saying in a statement that Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”

The retribution she faced within the GOP built over the following months. In May 2021, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy publicly endorsed removing Cheney from her position as the No. 3 spot in the party’s leadership team.

That same month, the House GOP removed Cheney from her leadership post on a voice vote.

She followed the ouster by telling reporters, in a preview of how she would approach the following year and her reelection campaign: “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former President never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”

In July 2021, Cheney accepted a position as one of two Republicans, along with retiring Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, on the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

As the committee conducted its probe, Trump set his sights on revenge, endorsing challengers to most of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him.

Trump’s biggest target was Cheney. He endorsed Hageman, a former Republican National Committee member and lawyer who had once been a Cheney ally, on the day she entered the race in September 2021.

For the most part, Trump’s efforts have succeeded. Four of the 10 have retired. Three more, in addition to Cheney, lost their primaries. Only two survived their primaries, and California Rep. David Valadao and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse did so in part because their states hold all-party open primaries.

As those retirements piled up and those primaries unfolded, Cheney was busy playing a leading role on that committee, in its interviews of former Trump administration officials and in its public hearings in which the panel has revealed some of its findings.

She has also sought out opportunities to confront the GOP’s direction. She delivered a searing rebuke of Trump and her party’s leadership in a late June speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before – and that is a former President who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic,” Cheney said then. “And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.”

Weeks after that speech, Cheney was elusive when asked about the possibility of running for president in 2024. She told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that she will “make a decision on 2024 down the road.”

In an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt earlier this month, Cheney made clear she would not temper her criticism of Trump at all – even if it costs her the House seat that her father once held and that she has held since 2017.

“We’re in a situation where former President Trump has betrayed the patriotism of millions and millions of people across our country, and many people here in Wyoming, and he’s lied to them,” she said. “And what I know to do is to tell the truth, and to make sure that people understand the truth about what happened and why it matters so much.”

Even as polls showed Cheney was on her way to a resounding defeat, she stuck to a message focused squarely on Trump.

Her campaign bought ad time on Fox for a spot featuring Dick Cheney, in which he called Trump a “coward” who lies to his supporters and “tried to steal the last election” using violence.

Republican candidate U.S. Representative Liz Cheney speaks during her primary election night party in Jackson, Wyoming, U.S. August 16, 2022. David Stubbs/Reuters

What’s next

It didn’t take long for the outcome of Tuesday’s primary to become clear. Cheney had been badly defeated, and conceded the race to Hageman quickly.

She told supporters that she’d won the primary with 73% support two years ago, and “could easily have done the same again.” But doing so, she said, would have required embracing Trump’s lies about election fraud.

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

“No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty,” she said.

After a primary that Cheney and her allies knew she was set to lose, the question is, what’s next for the Wyoming congresswoman who had in a short time rocketed up the House Republican ranks?

She did not answer that question Tuesday night, at her election night event on a ranch in Jackson Hole. But overnight, her campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission creating a leadership PAC to be called “The Great Task” – a nod to Abraham Lincoln, who spoke at Gettysburg of the “great task” facing the country. And on Wednesday morning, she told NBC’s “Today” show that she is “thinking about” running for president and will make a decision in “the coming months.”

In her election night speech, Cheney previewed a continued fight against Trump: “I have said since January 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office, and I mean it. This is a fight for all of us, together.”

“I ask you tonight to join me: As we leave here, let us resolve that we will stand together, Republicans, Democrats and independents, against those who would destroy our republic,” she added.

As she left the stage, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared over the event’s speakers as the sun set over the Grand Teton mountain peak.

This story and headline have been updated.

Eric Bradner Jeff Zeleny
Eric Bradner
Jeff Zeleny

Liz Cheney vows to carry on fight against Trump after conceding ...

CNN —

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the most ardent Republican critic of Donald Trump in Congress, vowed to carry on her fight against the former President and the election-denying movement he leads in a speech Tuesday night after conceding defeat in her primary.

She’ll lose to Trump-backed attorney Harriet Hageman, CNN projects.

“This primary election is over,” Cheney said in her speech. “But now the real work begins.”

On Wednesday morning, she told NBC’s “Today” show that she is “thinking about” running for president and will make a decision in “the coming months.”

The last of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment to face voters, Cheney now becomes the eighth who will not be returning to Congress next year. Her loss, though widely anticipated, represents a significant marker in the wider fight over the direction of the Republican Party. Once considered an up-and-comer, Cheney was booted from House GOP leadership last year over her unyielding opposition to the former President and trailed in polling back home this year as she helped lead the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Though she made no announcement about her plans Tuesday night, Cheney did hint at a future in elective politics.

“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” she said. “Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our union and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history.”

Overnight, the Cheney campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission creating a leadership PAC to be called “The Great Task.” This is the first of several next steps from Cheney, an adviser told CNN, as she starts to make good on ideas expressed in her election night speech and opens a new chapter in the wake of her landslide defeat. The name of the PAC is a historic nod to Lincoln who spoke at Gettysburg of the “great task” facing the country.

Cheney’s attempt at projecting dignity in defeat in her election night speech was itself a clear rejoinder to Trump’s behavior since losing the 2020 election.

“No House seat, no office in this land is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty,” she said. “Our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept, honorably, the outcome of elections. And tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary. She won. I called her to concede the race.”

Trump-backed Harriet Hageman speaks to supporters on election night in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Michael Smith/Getty Images

Despite her conservative credentials and party pedigree, her role as Trump’s chief GOP critic on Capitol Hill made her a heavy underdog in a state the former President won with nearly 70% of the vote in 2020. His enduring popularity there, coupled with Cheney’s role as vice chair of the January 6 committee, made the three-term congresswoman and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney a top target of Trump allies.

Cheney said American democracy faced an existential threat – that “our survival is not guaranteed” – calling out Republican efforts at the state level to decertify 2020 election results and GOP midterm candidates who have already begun to cast doubt on future votes.

“If we do not condemn the conspiracies and the lies, if we do not hold those responsible to account, we will be excusing this conduct and it will become a feature of all elections,” she said. “America will never be the same.”

Trump’s grip on the GOP has been proven again and again since he left Washington. With Wyoming’s vote in, Cheney becomes the fourth House Republican who voted to impeach Trump to lose her primary. Four others were not running for another term. The two survivors to date, in California and Washington, benefited from their states’ nonpartisan primary system. Cheney had no such cushion, though a late push for Democrats and independents to register for the GOP primary might have somewhat softened the ultimate count.

Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill had coalesced around Hageman, who has embraced Trump’s false election fraud claims and called the 2020 contest “rigged.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, another Hageman supporter, on Monday said during an appearance on Fox News that the election in Wyoming was “going to be a referendum on the January 6 committee.”

Cheney on Tuesday also addressed the recent search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, denouncing the former President’s efforts to sow anger among his supporters and potentially endanger FBI agents involved in the raid by releasing some of their names.

“That was purposeful and malicious. No patriotic American should excuse these threats or be intimidated by them,” she said. “Our great nation must not be ruled by a mob provoked over social media.”

As Cheney issued a dire warning in Jackson, Hageman, at her victory rally hours east in Cheyenne, thanked Trump and congressional Republicans for their support.

“Wyoming has shown today is that while it may not be easy, we can dislodge entrenched politicians who believe they’ve risen above the people they are supposed to represent and serve,” Hageman said.

In a post to his own social media platform, Trump crowed over Cheney’s loss, calling it “a wonderful result for America,” before denouncing her as “spiteful” and “sanctimonious.”

“Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now,” Trump wrote.

Sarah Palin looks to make a comeback in Alaska

Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, US, on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg/Getty Images

While Cheney may have been cast into her party’s wilderness, a prominent figure from the GOP’s recent past is hoping to return from more than a decade off the electoral map. Former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, whose ascent marked a precursor to the party’s Trump era, returned to the ballot on Tuesday.

In this new iteration, she was the Trump-endorsed candidate in a three-deep field vying to fill the remainder of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s at-alarge House seat. But no candidate will secure a majority of the vote in that race, CNN projects, which means it’ll head to a ranked-choice voting tabulation that is scheduled to start on August 31.

Palin, who resigned as governor in 2009, squared off with Nick Begich III, the Republican scion of the state’s most storied Democratic family, and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola, who was endorsed by independent Al Gross after he dropped out of the race despite also making the final four.

Those three special election contenders were also running in a concurrent primary to determine who will advance to the November general election to fill the at-large House seat for the next full term. All three will advance, CNN projects, along with Republican Tara Sweeney, a former assistant secretary for Indian affairs at the US Interior Department.

GOP senator who voted to convict Trump faces voters

Sen. Lisa Murkowski outside the Senate chambers on July 21, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While Cheney’s fate in Wyoming has grabbed the most headlines, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, was also facing new competition this year fueled by her lack of fealty to the former President. Unlike Cheney, however, Murkowski – herself the latest in a proud statewide political dynasty – was a better bet to overcome the forces arrayed against her.

That’s in large part due to Alaska’s new nonpartisan top-four primary, which, like in the House race, sends the top four candidates to the general election, which will be decided by a ranked-choice vote if no one receives a majority.

Murkowski, Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Patricia Chesbro will advance to the November election, CNN projects, against a fourth candidate yet to be determined. The top-four system is expected to aid Murkowski against the Trump-backed Tshibaka, who’s the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration.

Murkowski has in the past enjoyed broad support, across partisan lines, in a state that elected her father, Frank Murkowski, first to the Senate and then as its governor. He then appointed his daughter to her current position in 2002. When she was defeated in a 2010 Republican primary during the tea party wave, Murkowski launched a write-in campaign and defeated GOP nominee Joe Miller in the fall.

In the governor’s race, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Democrat Les Gara and independent former Gov. Bill Walker will advance to the November election, CNN projects, against a fourth candidate yet to be determined.

Walker likely would have lost to Dunleavy in his 2018 reelection bid had he not dropped out shortly before the election and endorsed Democrat Mark Begich.

Dunleavy, now seeking a second term, won the one-on-one contest by less than 10 points.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

Six takeaways from primaries in Wyoming and Alaska | CNN Politics

Jackson, Wyoming CNN —

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who since the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol has become the Republican Party’s most forceful critic of former President Donald Trump, was ousted from her House seat by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, CNN projected Tuesday.

In Alaska, voters cast ballots in another race the former President is focused on, with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski squaring off in the first of two rounds against the Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, is attempting a political comeback in a special election for the state’s lone House seat.

Here are six takeaways from Tuesday’s contests in Wyoming and Alaska:

Trump caps his purge of intraparty rivals

Trump and his allies have spent the spring and summer turning Republican primaries across the political map into bitter fights in which loyalty to the former President was the central factor.

He lost some high-profile battles, including in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger held off Trump-back challengers.

But in most open-seat races, Trump’s candidates triumphed. And on Tuesday in Wyoming, Trump, who had endorsed Hageman on the day she entered the race against Cheney, claimed his biggest victory yet.

Cheney is now the eighth of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol to exit the House. Four have opted not to seek reelection, and four more have lost GOP primaries.

Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman waves, along with her husband, John Sundahl, during her election night party in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on August 16, 2022. Eli Imadali/Reuters

Cheney chose to go down fighting Trump

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary, Cheney insisted she was trying to win.

But her strategy – attempting to convince the Republican electorate in a state the former President won by a margin of 43 percentage points in 2020 to turn on him – suggests she’d made a different choice: to go down swinging.

She infuriated Republicans by urging Wyoming Democrats and unaffiliated voters to switch their party registration and vote in Tuesday’s GOP primary.

Surrounded by US Capitol Police officers on the campaign trail, Cheney opted for small, private events over rallies. She lambasted Trump in television interviews.

Her campaign’s closing message was a TV ad featuring her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, calling Trump a “coward” who lies to his supporters and “tried to steal the last election” using violence.

Her election night event, on a ranch in Jackson Hole with the sun setting over the Grand Tetons in the background, didn’t feature any television screens for supporters to watch results tabulated in a race Cheney was all but certain to lose.

She told supporters that she could have cozied up to Trump and did what she’d done in the primary two years earlier: win with 73% of the vote.

“That was a path I could not and would not take,” Cheney said. “No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty.”

Video Ad Feedback Watch what Liz Cheney told supporters after conceding primary 03:12 - Source: CNN

Cheney’s decision to use the spotlight of her high-profile House primary to tee off on Trump was never a winning one in Wyoming. But it did endear her to a segment of anti-Trump donors and position her as the GOP’s most strident critic of Trump.

What’s next for Cheney?

The three-term congresswoman has not been definitive about her next political moves. On Wednesday, she told NBC’s “Today” show that she is “thinking about” running for president and will make a decision in “the coming months.” And following her loss, her campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission creating a leadership PAC to be called “The Great Task” – a nod to Abraham Lincoln, who spoke at Gettysburg of the “great task” facing the country.

Cheney used her election night speech to preview a continued fight against Trump, without laying out exactly what that means.

“I have said since January 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office, and I mean it. This is a fight for all of us, together,” she said.

“I’m a conservative Republican. … But I love my country more. So I ask you tonight to join me: As we leave here, let us resolve that we will stand together, Republicans, Democrats and independents, against those who would destroy our republic.”

As she left the stage, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared over the event’s speakers.

Waiting on Alaska special election result

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee who has not run for office since then, is attempting a political comeback in the special House election to fill the remaining months of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s term.

But it will take weeks to sort out whether she wins the runoff election against businessman and fellow Republican Nick Begich III and Democratic former state lawmaker Mary Peltola.

The special election is Alaska’s first using the state’s new ranked-choice voting system. CNN projected that none of the three candidates will receive more than 50% of the vote in the first round, meaning that the state will tabulate second-choice votes on August 31.

The ranked-choice system could prove problematic for Palin, whose decision to quit midway through her one term as governor, in 2009, still angers many of the state’s voters. Begich III, the Republican scion of Alaska’s most famous Democratic political family – his grandfather Nick Begich was the state’s congressman until his plane disappeared in 1972, and his uncle Mark Begich was a senator – is seeking to capitalize on that hardened opposition to Palin.

The top four candidates from a wide-open June special primary advanced to the runoff. But one of those candidates, independent Al Gross, later dropped out of the race, a decision that likely boosted Peltola, who is seeking to make history as the state’s first Alaska Native in Congress.

Video Ad Feedback Palin: McCain's presidential campaign had 'shackles on me' 04:50 - Source: CNN

A second race for the same seat

At the same time that Alaska was filling its at-large House seat in Tuesday’s special election, the state held a primary for November’s general election for a full term for the same seat. Palin, Begich III and Peltola will all advance to another top-four runoff, CNN projected, along with Republican Tara Sweeney, an Alaska Native backed by the state’s powerful Native-owned corporations who served as assistant secretary for Indian affairs at the US Interior Department during the Trump administration.

Other key races to watch in Alaska

Trump has also set his sights on Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was among the seven Republican senators who voted to convict him during his second impeachment trial. Trump is backing former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka; he traveled to the state to hold a rally for Tshibaka in July.

However, Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system – like the House race, the top four finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election – means that both Murkowski and Tshibaka will advance to the general election, CNN projected. Democrat Patricia Chesbro will also advance, and a fourth candidate has not yet been projected.

In another competitive top-four primary in Alaska, the current governor, Republican Mike Dunleavy, and his independent predecessor, Bill Walker, will both advance to the general election, alongside Democrat Les Gara, CNN projected. The fourth candidate has not yet been projected. Walker, who was elected in 2014 but dropped his 2018 reelection bid to back a Democrat who lost to Dunleavy, is supported by some Democrats and moderate Republicans who tout his decision to expand Medicaid and his opposition to restrictions on abortion rights.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

If Cheney loses her primary, Trump's GOP critics will face tough ...

CNN —

Rep. Liz Cheney’s uphill battle to keep her seat in Wyoming’s GOP primary on Tuesday underscores how Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican Party is tightening even as the former President’s legal challenges are mounting. That dynamic poses stark choices for the thin band of Republican elected officials and voters resistant to his dominance within the party.

If Cheney loses Tuesday, as expected, the result will place an exclamation point on a summer that has seen Trump-backed candidates, almost all of whom echo his falsehoods about the 2020 election, win most hotly contested party primaries. Virtually no GOP elected officials have dared to criticize him over damaging revelations either from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, or the Justice Department investigation of his handling of classified information.

Trump’s muscle-flexing has dashed the expectations, or maybe the hopes, of many conservative commentators who took his losses in several late May Georgia primaries as evidence that his influence was waning. Instead, by rejecting multiple opportunities to move away from the former President, both Republican officials and voters in the three months since have sent an unmistakable message to Trump skeptics that they remain the subordinate minority in the party.

“There is no lane in the Republican Party that is viable for [a] Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, or Mike Madrid,” Madrid, a long-time strategist who has become one of Trump’s sharpest Republican critics, told me. “The party is never going to go back to what it was.”

And that means, in the near term at least, there’s a hard choice facing the leaders and voters in the GOP coalition who view Trump as a threat to American democracy. Do they continue to support a party that remains in thrall to him or launch a more direct attack against his influence, even if that helps Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections?

Many Trump critics are expecting Cheney’s remarks on Tuesday night, if she loses, to signal her intention to rally such an anti-Trump effort as a contender in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, and perhaps even into the general election as an independent candidate if the party nominates Trump again.

Georgia was an aberration

Breathless reports of Trump’s allegedly eroding position in the GOP have appeared all year, particularly after his nemeses in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, easily defeated the primary challengers he recruited to run against them. Axios, in a reaction typical of the response at the time, declared those results “cast doubt on the 2020 election’s continued salience for GOP voters — and may presage his weakened lock on the party.”

Those claiming the GOP was moving beyond Trump pointed to both objective and subjective shifts: growing interest among some party activists and donors in a possible 2024 candidacy from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, less obsessive coverage of Trump’s every word at Fox News, polls showing some decline in the share of Republican voters who wanted him to seek the presidency in 2024, and occasional defeats through the primary season for some of his preferred candidates, such as his scandal-tarred choice in the Nebraska governor’s race.

Yet over the summer, both Republican leaders and voters have sent a very different message. On both fronts, recent events have underlined Trump’s continuing preeminence –to the point where experts who study democracy see growing parallels between the contemporary GOP and the compliant parties that have been subjugated by authoritarian-minded strongmen in other countries, such as media mogul and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey.

“The GOP is a party now dominated by authoritarian dynamics,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University and author of the 2020 book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” told me. “It is so domesticated and subjected by Trump to this authoritarian style discipline that there is no space within the party for dissenters.”

That shift has been evident both in election results and the behavior of elected GOP officials.

Like any political leader, Trump has not delivered victory for every candidate he has endorsed. Candidates who have kept their distance from his false fraud claims about the 2020 election have won some GOP nominations this summer, including contests for attorney general in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and secretary of state in Kansas.

But candidates endorsing Trump’s discredited claims about 2020 have experienced a remarkable run of success, often defeating candidates backed by more mainstream Republican leaders. Election deniers rode his endorsements to a clean sweep of all the top GOP nominations in Arizona (including governor, attorney general, secretary of state and US senator), surging past contenders supported by outgoing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump-backed election deniers likewise swept the top nominations in Michigan (for governor, attorney general and secretary of state). Earlier this month, Trump’s choice for Wisconsin governor, construction executive Tim Michels, muscled past former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (who herself had called the 2020 election “rigged” and had the support of Pence and former Gov. Scott Walker) for the GOP nomination. Trump-backed election deniers this summer also won gubernatorial nods in Kansas and Maryland as well as the secretary of state nod in Nevada.

A recent CNN tally found that at least 20 GOP nominees out of this year’s 36 gubernatorial races have questioned or outright dismissed the 2020 election results, with the final tally expected to rise as the last nominations are completed. Election deniers have won 10 GOP nominations for secretary of state, another CNN compilation found.

In a parallel push, Trump has eviscerated the ranks of the House Republicans who voted for his impeachment after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Of the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment, four have retired, three have already lost GOP primaries (including two in contests on August 2) and Cheney, who has trailed in poling behind Trump-backed election denier Harriet Hageman, is likely to join the ranks of the ousted on Tuesday. Only two of the 10 have won primaries to advance to the November midterms (Dan Newhouse in Washington and David Valadao in California both finished in the top two in their states’ primary systems in which candidates of all parties run together.)

At the same time, GOP elected officials, almost without exception, have locked arms to defend Trump amid ethical and legal questions. Hardly any GOP elected leaders have expressed concern about the many damaging revelations about his behavior unearthed by the House January 6 committee and his broader efforts to overturn the 2020 result. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio – who, like fellow Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, has morphed from a Trump antagonist in the 2016 presidential primary election into an unstinting defender – set the tone early on when he dismissed the committee as a “circus” and “garbage” before it had held a single hearing.

In a recent interview with Chicago television, Kinzinger, the other Republican beside Cheney on the January 6 committee, acknowledged that the silence of GOP leaders showed that Trump, at least for now, had “won” the battle for control of the Republican Party. “Maybe there wasn’t going to be a tidal wave of people to come over, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be alone,” said the Illinois Republican, who is not running for reelection this fall.

The rush of GOP leaders to defend Trump after the FBI executed the search warrant on his Florida mansion – even before any information was available about what the FBI was seeking – has offered another measure of his dominance. Once again, Rubio set the pace for abject devotion: “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships. But never before in America,” Rubio tweeted the day of the search.

Only after an apparent Trump supporter attacked an FBI office in Ohio last week – and violent threats against federal law enforcement proliferated on the right — did some Republicans (including Rubio) qualify their criticism with denunciations of violence or praise for federal law enforcement.

International parallels suggest GOP loyalty to Trump isn’t fading anytime soon

Cheney’s likely defeat on Tuesday will cap these demonstrations of strength from Trump. To experts who study authoritarian movements, it follows a pattern evident in other countries.

Ben-Ghiat notes that in Italy, Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, remained firmly in his grip for years despite an unending succession of financial, political and sexual scandals reminiscent of Trump’s travails. As she wrote in her book “Strongmen,” Berlusconi’s “personality cult left Forza Italia no space to develop a political identity independent of him and no respite from his endless judicial woes, scandals and loyalty tests.”

She sees the same dynamic hardening into place among Republicans. “Since January 6 [2021], the party has become way more radicalized,” she told me. “When parties make these bargains with these charismatic demagogues they stick with them to the bitter end.”

Susan Stokes, director of the Chicago Center on Democracy at the University of Chicago, sees another international parallel to the GOP’s continuing deference to Trump. “The case that jumps to mind,” she told me, “is Erdogan and his party, the AKP in Turkey, where you have a very charismatic, persuasive leader who always has a narrative to explain things that, to our eyes, is super crazy but he gets people to believe it.”

Like Ben-Ghiat, Stokes says the international precedents leave her skeptical that the GOP will reject Trump’s direction – or even move away from Trump personally – any time soon. Madrid likewise agrees that Republicans critical of Trump must recognize that his forces unequivocally remain the party’s ruling faction. “What we are witnessing right now is just the calcification of the establishment as he has taken over the party,” Madrid says. “You cannot buck this party” and win primaries inside the GOP except in rare cases, he adds.

But that doesn’t mean that Republicans resistant to Trump’s direction have no leverage over the GOP’s direction, Madrid argues. Depending on how it’s asked in polling, somewhere around one-fifth to one-fourth of self-identified Republican voters (and sometimes more) reject Trump’s lies about the election, believe he acted improperly on January 6 or in how he contested the 2020 result or that his statements encouraged violence before the insurrection.

Madrid says that if even about half of those voters withheld their support from Republican office-holders enabling Trump, or from Trump himself if the GOP nominates him again in 2024, the party could not survive those defections in a general election. “There is really no leverage within the party for these 20% of Republicans,” he says. “There is leverage in the general election because they essentially will have veto power” over whether a Republican can win the White House in 2024.

Like many Republicans opposed to Trump, Madrid wants and expects Cheney to run in the 2024 GOP presidential primary to try to coalesce the minority of party voters resistant to the former President into a more unified faction. If the GOP nominates him again, Madrid and like-minded Trump-skeptics argue, Cheney should try to siphon away right-leaning voters who would find it difficult to vote for a Democrat by running as a conservative independent in the general election. If Cheney provides “a banner to rally around,” Madrid predicts, the critical sliver of traditionally Republican-leaning voters – many of them college-educated suburbanites who defected from Trump in 2020 in key states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona – would grow larger in 2024.

Other Trump critics aren’t as certain that a Cheney independent general election bid, if it came to that, wouldn’t do more to help than hurt the former President by dividing the voters hostile to him.

The larger issue may be that the GOP’s choice to double down on its commitment to Trump, even as multiple probes into his actions uncover new evidence, underscores how much of the party’s leadership and base alike have fully enlisted into his efforts to destabilize American democracy.

“Where do you go with that?” asks Stokes. “I don’t see where you go except in the direction of complete constitutional crisis, stalemate and violence. That’s a really scary thought.”

RNC members look to rebuke Cheney and Kinzinger for roles on ...

CNN —

A proposal to endorse removing GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the House Republican Conference has gained steam ahead of its introduction at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting this week.

The proposed resolution, which has garnered more than 50 co-sponsors, seeks to punish the two Republican lawmakers over their involvement in the ongoing House Select Committee investigation of the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, according to two people familiar with the latest draft. Should it pass out of a resolutions committee meeting on Thursday, all 168 RNC members would vote on it Friday morning.

“We want to make a statement. This is an inquisition, and we just feel like they are trying to dig up anything they can but that it’s one-sided,” Jonathan Barnett, a national committeeman from Arkansas who is among the resolution’s co-sponsors, told CNN in an interview Tuesday.

“We don’t understand Liz and Adam. There’s just a lot of frustration with the January 6 committee and we don’t think there’s any representation on the Republican side. We’d like to see [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy take care of these issues, but it’s something we feel we need to talk about,” Barnett added.

Led by Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Eathorne, the resolution has been passed around to several party officials over the past few days who have been eager to take a public stand against the House panel and the two Republicans who have taken on active roles in the January 6 investigation. The Washington Post was first to report details of the resolution, which is likely to be taken up at the committee’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City this week.

Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who was ousted from her leadership post as the No. 3 Republican in the House last May, is currently facing a primary challenger backed by former President Donald Trump and several of her House GOP colleagues. In November, the Wyoming GOP voted to no longer recognize her as a Republican amid her constant criticism of Trump’s dominance over the party and his role in the January 6 riots.

“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said in a statement that was shared by her office with CNN.

Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is another vocal Trump critic, announced last October that he plans to retire at the end of his term. Like Cheney, the Illinois lawmaker was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol insurrection and has continued to decry Trump’s firm grip on Republicans.

Spokespeople for Kinzinger and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kinzinger and Cheney are the only two Republicans serving on the January 6 committee after McCarthy withdrew his slate of members during negotiations over the panel’s configuration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied seats on the panel to ultra-conservative Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio – both of whom objected to congressional certification of the election results from two states on January 6, 2021.

McCarthy, who rejected calls from within his caucus to oust Cheney from her leadership position until Trump endorsed the move, has recently ignored calls from Trump-aligned conservatives to remove Cheney and Kinzinger from the House GOP conference. In December, more than 40 conservative figures urged the minority leader in a letter to remove the duo from the party’s ranks. One of the letter’s signatories – Citizens United president David Bossie – has been involved in drafting the RNC resolution that calls for the same outcome. Bossie did not return a request for comment.

Barnett, the committeeman from Arkansas, said the resolution against Cheney and Kinzinger “is controversial and not everyone agrees with it” among the RNC’s membership, but argued that it is likely to pass given that it has already amassed more than 50 co-sponsors. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who has not publicly acknowledged whether she supports the resolution, said in November that Cheney was “still a Republican” despite the Wyoming GOP’s vote to remove her from their ranks.

“She still has an ‘R’ next to her name. I wish she was talking about electing ‘Rs’ more,” McDaniel told reporters at the time.

In addition to the resolution targeting Kinzinger and Cheney, the RNC is expected to discuss changes to the party’s participation in future presidential debates and its platform when members gather in Utah beginning on Wednesday. McDaniel is scheduled to address members on Friday morning, shortly before they will vote on the anti-Cheney and anti-Kinzinger resolution if it passes out of the resolutions committee.

Liz Cheney, fighting for political survival, seeks crossover support ...

CNN —

Embattled Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is turning to Democrats in her state as she looks to fend off a serious primary challenge in August, providing Democratic voters with instructions on how to change parties so they can support her – even as Cheney and her allies continue to tout her conservative bona fides.

Two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN that Cheney has made overtures to Democrats in her state, both through targeted mailers outlining the steps someone would need to take to switch party affiliation and on her campaign website, which now features an FAQ on how to “change my party affiliation to register as a Republican so I can vote for Liz.”

Cheney – who has become a thorn in former President Donald Trump’s side from her perch on the House select committee investigating the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and her repeated dismissal of his false claims about a stolen election – has defended the move, saying she is providing Wyoming voters with “all the key rules” they need to be aware of to participate in the state’s primary elections.

“I’ve been a conservative Republican since I first voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. I encourage everyone with principles who loves our country to exercise their right to vote. And, damn right, I will continue to give every voter in Wyoming a list of all the key rules for casting ballots in our state,” Cheney said in a statement, first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.

“If any eligible voter living in Wyoming wishes to become a Republican, they are free to do so. That is their right,” she added.

Wyoming election laws allows voters to switch their party affiliation up to two weeks before the primary, which will occur August 16, while also permitting same-day changes at local polling places or by voters who request absentee ballots. Cheney’s push for support in Democratic corners comes as she fights for political survival in one of the most closely watched and expensive House Republican primaries this cycle. Her opponent, Wyoming businesswoman Harriet Hageman, was endorsed by Trump last September and has proven to be a formidable challenger.

Cheney’s opponents accused her of flip-flopping after she told The New York Times in February she would not launch a “Democrats for Cheney” group to try and recruit supporters from across the political aisle.

“That is not something that I have contemplated, that I have organized or that I will organize,” Cheney said at the time. A person close to Cheney rebuffed such claims, noting that such a group still “does not exist.”

Hageman’s team, which first learned of Cheney’s outreach to Democratic voters earlier this week, said they are not concerned about the impact it could have in the primary – pointing to the 70 percent of Wyoming voters who backed Trump’s 70% support among Wyoming voters in 2020 and the state’s deep red status, and contending that there are simply not enough registered Democrats in the state to sway a GOP primary contest.

“We have anticipated that she would do this and we have accounted… for the possibility that a higher number of Democrats than normal would crossover [in the primary], and Harriet will still win even if that is the case,” a top Hageman adviser said.

“We’re all over it and there aren’t enough Democrats [in Wyoming] for this gambit to work,” a second Hageman adviser said.

While Cheney’s high-profile involvement in recent public hearings on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcome has certainly given her a boost among Democrats, it is unclear whether it will have a notable impact in Wyoming, specifically. Publicly available data by the Wyoming secretary of state’s office shows that over the last two months, the number of registered Republican voters in the state has increased by 980, while the number of registered Democrat decreased by 452. As of June 2022, registered Republicans make up 70% of all registered voters in Wyoming, according to the same data.

“This is Wyoming, this is not Georgia,” the first Hageman adviser added. “It’s the most pro-Trump state that there is.”

Colleagues of Cheney, who have previously complained about her criticism of Trump and Republican party leadership, said they were not surprised by her outreach to Democratic voters given her current status inside the GOP.

“It just confirms what everybody already knows: she no longer really is accepted as a Republican. She filed as a Republican but she clearly doesn’t have a path to win as a Republican,” said Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio.

Cheney has maintained support among some notable Republicans in Wyoming – including former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson, who retired from the upper chamber in 1997 – and her voting record among conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation remains in the high 80s. But if Trump’s track record of ousting incumbent Republicans who voted to impeach him over January 6 is any indication, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney could be in trouble later this summer.

Last week, South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice became the first of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump (a group that includes Cheney) to lose his primary bid for reelection. Rice lost to Trump-backed state GOP Rep. Russell Fry by a margin of more than 25 percent, according to CNN election results.

Liz Cheney vote updates: House GOP removes Cheney from ...

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who was ousted from her role as House Republican Conference chair Wednesday told the Today Show's Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday that she will be a leader "to restore" the Republican Party.

"I intend to be the leader — one of the leaders — in a fight to help to restore our party, in a fight to bring our party back to substance and principle and in a fight to make clear that we won't participate in the really dangerous effort that's under way," she said in a clip of the interview expected to air Thursday.

When asked about a potential primary challenger in 2022, Cheney told Guthrie: "Bring it on."

– Sean Rossman

Nancy Pelosi: Cheney 'a leader of great courage'

Shortly after House Republicans voted to strip Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in.

"Congresswoman Liz Cheney is a leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity. Today, House Republicans declared that those values are unwelcome in the Republican party," reads a statement issued by Pelosi, D-Calif.

“The Republican denial of the truth presented by Congresswoman Cheney is reflected in their denial of the need to seek the truth in a January 6th commission and to repair the damage of January 6th with a security supplemental immediately."

Cheney's speech:'I will not sit back': In fiery speech, Rep. Liz Cheney calls Trump a 'threat'

Cheney defenders: Vote was too quick and a display of 'fake unity'

Despite the slow buildup, the meeting to determine Rep. Liz Cheney’s fate in House Republican leadership lasted just a few minutes. Cheney spoke briefly as did House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. But it featured no secret ballots or long speeches. And its shortness pleased some members while angering others.

That’s how several GOP lawmakers described the caucus gathering Wednesday morning that ended with the ouster of Cheney as chair of the House GOP Conference.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a Cheney supporter, told USA TODAY afterwards there were “people ready to go to battle for her.” So, having a voice vote rather than a roll call or ballots was a show of “fake unity,” he said.

“There were a lot of people who wanted to defend Liz,” said Kinzinger, adding that people who wanted to defend her didn’t realize they had little opportunity to do so.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who also did not support removing Cheney, told reporters there was a question of “whether we could do a recorded vote” but it was not agreed to.

“To me” a debate is what “the Republican Party is all about,” Buck continued. “This discussion is all about disagreement and coming to the best solution … I just think that we are healthier as a party, by having disagreements on issues.”

– Savannah Behrmann and Ledyard King

Democrats react to Liz Cheney ouster from GOP House leadership

Shortly after House Republicans voted to remove conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney from her post over her opposition to former President Donald Trump, Democrats reacted.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans had "reached a new and very dangerous low” in their removal of Cheney, while Rep. Ilhan Omar — a fierce critic of Cheney’s politics — said the reason Republicans are removing her from leadership is "shameful.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., similarly condemned Cheney’s ouster. “Political parties that promote lies and propaganda are setting their countries up for authoritarianism and fascism. The cancellation of Liz Cheney by Trump and the GOP is a flashing red danger sign for our democracy,” he wrote on Twitter.

The chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said Wednesday at a hearing about the Capitol riot Jan. 6 that no member of Congress should be punished for speaking the truth. Maloney quoted Cheney, R-Wyo., that remaining silent and ignoring the lie about whether the election was stolen would only embolden the liar.

“No member of Congress, whether a freshman representative or a House conference chair should face punishment for speaking the truth about what happened that day,” Maloney said. “It is time for the American people and this Congress to look at the events of Jan. 6 and say never again.”

– Matthew Brown and Bart Jansen

Elise Stefanik makes formal push to replace Cheney

Shortly after Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from her position in House Republican leadership Wednesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik announced a formal effort to replace her as the chamber’s third-ranking Republican.

In a two-page letter to House Republicans, Stefanik did not mention Cheney, former President Donald Trump or his election fraud claims. Cheney’s ouster came after she repeatedly slammed the former president’s debunked claims the election was stolen from him.

Instead she railed against the media and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“I know firsthand the discipline and message it takes to fight back against the biased national media and the entire Democrat and Far-Left infrastructure. I know what it takes to flip a district and grow the Republican Party,” she wrote. “I look forward to working with you as we share our unified conservative vision, regain the Majority, fire Speaker Pelosi once and for all, and fight on behalf of the American people to save our country.”

– Sean Rossman

Cheney’s replacement expected to be chosen Friday

Republicans will reconvene Friday to decide who will replace Rep. Liz Cheney in House GOP leadership, according to several lawmakers leaving the vote.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told USA TODAY following Wednesday's vote he expects Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who formally announced her bid for the House GOP Conference chair post Cheney held, to visit the Freedom Caucus and others tonight to lobby for support.

The Freedom Caucus is comprised of hard-right members of the party who are most loyal to former President Donald Trump.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., already has endorsed Stefanik. But some more conservative members are not sold on her yet.

On Thursday, the conference will hold a candidate forum, but several lawmakers were skeptical that someone besides Stefanik would emerge successful.

– Savannah Behrmann and Ledyard King

Elise Stefanik:Who is Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman Trump and Scalise want to replace Liz Cheney in GOP leadership?

What does the chair do?:Liz Cheney has been removed as House GOP Conference chair. What does the chair do?

Liz Cheney spoke before the vote about hewing to “truth”

Rep. Liz Cheney made one last pitch to her fellow Republicans before they voted to oust her as chair of the House GOP Conference on Wednesday.

Speaking to the assembled lawmakers in a closed-door meeting at the Capitol, the Wyoming Republican told reporters assembled outside the meeting room that she reiterated what she has been saying for weeks: “That we must go forward based on truth. We cannot both embrace the ‘big lie’ and embrace the Constitution.”

The “big lie” is what Cheney calls former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the November election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud.

Colorado GOP Rep. Ken Buck told reporters after the meeting that Cheney received a standing ovation after she spoke from some members of the caucus.

– Ledyard King and Savannah Behrmann

After vote, Trump says Cheney is 'bad' for Republicans

After House Republicans voted to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her House GOP leadership role, former President Donald Trump denounced her as "bad for the Republican Party."

“She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy," he said in a statement issued through his Save America PAC

Prior to the meeting, Trump had exhorted Republicans to demote her from her post as chair of the GOP House Conference.

“The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart,” Trump said in a statement issued through his PAC. “As a representative of the Great State of Wyoming, Liz Cheney is bad for our Country and bad for herself. Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ouster—and that includes me!”

Trump’s statements came only hours after Cheney was on the House floor imploring colleagues not to buy into the former president's “big lie” that the election was stolen from him due to baseless claims of wide voter fraud.

– Ledyard King

Frequent Trump critic Rep. Adam Kinzinger calls Cheney’s removal ‘sad'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump said Rep. Liz Cheney's removal from House Republican leadership Wednesday was "sad."

“What happened today was sad,” the congressman told reporters staking out the closed-door meeting.

“Liz has committed the only sin of being consistent and telling the truth. The truth is the election was not stolen,” he said, rebutting the former president’s claims of widespread election fraud in November. “Seventy-four million voters were not disenfranchised, they were outnumbered. And it’s important our party take inventory of that and go out and win the next election instead of continuing the big lie."

– Ledyard King

Cheney removed by voice vote, not secret ballot

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Rep. Liz Cheney had “a lot” of supporters in the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, but it was unclear how many there were because she was ousted form her leadership position by a voice vote, not a secret ballot as the caucus rules usually dictate.

“I stand with Liz. I’m proud of her. There’s a lot of people who are proud of her for what she’s done and a lot of people who feel threatened by her,” he said. “It was a sad day.”

– Ledyard King

'I will not sit back':In fiery speech, Rep. Liz Cheney calls Trump a 'threat'

Cheney ousted from leadership position in closed-door vote

House Republicans stripped Liz Cheney of her leadership post Wednesday after GOP House members said her public sparring with former President Donald Trump became a distraction to the party hoping to regain the House in 2022. The vote, cast by secret ballot and behind closed doors.

As chair of the GOP House Conference, the three-term Wyoming congresswoman had been the third most powerful Republican member of the House. Her ouster leaves a vacancy GOP officials expect to fill in the coming weeks.

Cheney is a staunch conservative from a red state and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. But her willingness to push back against Trump's "big lie" about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election led to a break with other House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who remain loyal to the former president and his baseless claims of a stolen election.

– Ledyard King

What is a House GOP Conference chair?:Liz Cheney is set to be removed from her post as House GOP Conference chair. What does the chair do?

Cheney's Tuesday night speech:'I know the topic is cancel culture.' What Rep. Liz Cheney said in her House floor speech about Trump

Meeting begins

A closed-door meeting of House Republicans in which they expect to vote on whether to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from House GOP leadership has begun.

Some House Republicans want to remove Cheney from her post as House Republican Caucus chair after she repeatedly criticized former President Donald Trump's debunked election fraud claims.

The members are meeting behind closed doors in the Capitol, where they'll vote by secret ballot.

– Savannah Behrmann and Sean Rossman

Members seem confident in a Cheney ouster

Several House GOP lawmakers walking into the Capitol seemed confident Rep. Liz Cheney would be ousted as House Republican Conference chair in a closed-door vote expected Wednesday morning.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told USA TODAY he expects there to be “strong support” to remove her, but couldn’t give an estimated number of how many lawmakers may vote to oust her.

– Savannah Behrmann

GOP lawmakers arrive for meeting to decide Cheney’s leadership future

Republican lawmakers have begun to arrive this morning for their closed-door meeting at the Capitol to decide whether Rep. Liz Cheney should remain in House GOP leadership. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.

The Wyoming Republican, who has forcefully pushed back against former President Donald Trump’s widely discredited claims of rampant voter fraud in the 2020 election, faces the loss of her seat as the chair of the GOP House Conference.

On the House floor Tuesday night, Cheney urged her GOP colleagues not to bend to the former president. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has recommended GOP lawmakers remove Cheney, saying she’s distracting from the party’s effort to win back Congress in next year’s elections.

– Ledyard King and Savannah Behrmann

Effort to remove Rep. Liz Cheney has been building

The opposition to Rep. Liz Cheney began building after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot in January – one of 10 House Republicans to do so.

Supporters of the 45th president called for her to be removed, and she survived an attempt to remove her from leadership in a secret ballot vote in February. But she has since remained firm in her belief that Trump's rhetoric led to the violence.

After Trump recently insisted the presidential election was stolen, Cheney tweeted "The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

Her position on Trump in February was backed up by other prominent Republicans like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who soon after the riot said, "The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters." He has now walked back those remarks, and has publicly signaled he supported removing Cheney following her recent comments against Trump, highlighting a fracture within the Republican party.

– Savannah Behrmann

Who is Elise Stefanik?

The person emerging as a potential replacement for Liz Cheney’s position as House GOP Conference chair, should she be ousted Wednesday, is Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who in the last years of the Trump administration emerged as a loyal and vocal defender of the 45th president.

Stefanik, 36, gained support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, and Trump over the last few weeks as being able to unify and represent the message of the caucus.

Stefanik, when she was elected in 2014 at age 30, was then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Prior to being a member of Congress, she attended Harvard University before joining the George W. Bush administration as an aide. She also advised then-vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in 2012.

She rose to GOP prominence during Trump’s first impeachment, after Trump called Stefanik a “new Republican star” as she defended him against Democrats.

– Savannah Behrmann

What’s with the secret ballot?

House Republicans have debated about Rep. Liz Cheney's future in public. The actual vote will be conducted in private.

When the meeting starts around 9 a.m. Wednesday, the doors will close to the press. Members will have a chance to say something and then they will cast a secret ballot to decide whether she should remain chair of the GOP Conference.

That means no one will really know how each of the 212 Republicans vote on whether to keep Cheney even if they make public pronouncements about her. The vote will be decided by a simple majority of the caucus.

When the votes are cast and the tabulation is complete, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is expected to come out of the meeting and announce the results to the press.

– Ledyard King

'I will not sit back':In fiery speech, Rep. Liz Cheney calls Trump a 'threat'

Cheney's speech:'I know the topic is cancel culture.' What Rep. Liz Cheney said in her House floor speech about Trump

Who is Liz Cheney, the third most-powerful House Republican?

Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney — who served alongside former President George W. Bush — has been widely respected in conservative politics and was considered one of the next in line to lead House Republicans.

But she was one of 10 Republicans in the House to vote for Trump's impeachment over his alleged incitement of the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, and has since remained firm in her belief that Trump's rhetoric led to the violence.

She has headed the House Republican Conference since 2019 and is the third-ranking Republican in the House. Cheney, Wyoming's only representative, faces a vote to remove her from her leadership position Wednesday morning.

– Savannah Behrmann

Liz Cheney: 'I will not sit back'

Rep. Liz Cheney, who on Wednesday faces a vote to remove her from House Republican leadership, tore into former President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening in a fiery speech on the House floor.

Cheney, the third most-powerful House Republican, has angered some in the party for her repeated criticism of Trump and his claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. A vote behind closed doors and by secret ballot is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

"This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans," she said. "Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy."

– Phillip M. Bailey and Ledyard King

House GOP expected to vote on Liz Cheney Wednesday

House Republicans meet behind closed doors on Capitol Hill Wednesday to make a major decision likely to highlight a deepening rift in a party hoping to retake control of Congress in 2022.

Will they keep Rep. Liz Cheney as the chamber's third-ranking Republican, or toss her out to make way for a leader more supportive of former President Donald Trump?

Lawmakers will vote by secret ballot whether to oust Cheney as chair of the House Republican Conference, the result of weeks of drama within the House GOP.

The three-term congresswoman from Wyoming and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has drawn anger from her GOP colleagues in recent weeks as her vocal pushback against Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election aggravated party leaders loyal to the former president.

'I will not sit back':In fiery speech, Rep. Liz Cheney calls Trump a 'threat'

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They've said Cheney has become a distraction from the mission to take back the House in next year's mid-term races.

"Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it's clear that we need to make a change," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote in a letter Monday to fellow Republican lawmakers.

High-ranking Republicans including Trump, are backing New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a fierce defender of the former president, to replace Cheney.If Cheney is removed Wednesday, a vote on her replacement is expected to take place at a later time.

Should the House GOP purge Cheney from leadership, it would be the latest evidence of a deep split in the Republican Party, in which some see Trump as its best path to electoral victory while some, like Cheney, say it should move beyond the former president.

Democrats hold slim majorities in the House and Senate and Republicans are eager to pick up seats in 2022 to regain majorities in both chambers.

In a fiery Tuesday evening speech on the House floor, Cheney ripped into Trump and his fraud claims, calling him a "threat."

"This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans," she said. "Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy."

Kevin McCarthy:Vote to oust Liz Cheney puts spotlight on House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump loyalist

More:GOP takes sides on Cheney's ouster, with one congressman calling party 'basically the Titanic'

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, believes ousting Cheney will hurt Republican efforts to win back Congress.

"I think we're better trying to expand the number of people who want to vote for Republicans as opposed to shrink that number," he told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday. "I think she's a person of integrity who follows her conscious and speaks the truth. And I think it will do nothing but drive some people away from our party."

House Republicans will meet at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday behind closed doors to hold a secret-ballot vote on Cheney. She can be removed by a simple majority of the 212-member Republican caucus.

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In the letter to Republican House members Monday, McCarthy wrote the party's "driving focus would be taking back the House in 2022" and "internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team."

Trump issued a statement last week through his Save America PAC in which he slammed Cheney as a "warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership" and threw his support behind Stefanik.

"We want leaders who believe in the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First," the former president said.

Cheney angered many of her GOP colleagues in January when she not only led a group of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on a charge he incited the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol but also publicly called the former president out for his unfounded election fraud claims.

Adam Kinzinger:Kinzinger claims McCarthy ignored warning that Jan. 6 events could turn violent

In February, Cheney retained her post in the party during a tumultuous, hours-long, closed-door meeting. Her fellow Republicans voted 145-61 (with one abstention) by secret ballot to keep her as chair.

After the meeting, Cheney told reporters the vote made clear "that we're not divided and that we're not going to be in a situation where people can pick off any member of leadership. It was a very resounding acknowledgment that we need to go forward together, and we need to go forward in a way that helps us push back the really dangerous and negative Democratic policies."

Republicans, including Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who chairs the Republican Study Committee within the GOP caucus, insist her removal has less to do with her ongoing skirmish with Trump and more about the distraction she had become.

"Any leader who is not focused on pushing back against the radical and dangerous Biden agenda needs to be replaced," he told "Fox News Sunday."

Opinion:Trump Republicans have had it with Liz Cheney and the democracy she chooses to defend

Timeline: Liz Cheney's political career, from Republican scion to ...

CNN —

A resounding defeat in Tuesday’s primary election marked the end of Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s time in Congress.

Cheney has been one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest and most outspoken critics in the Republican Party. But on Tuesday night, the three-term conservative congresswoman conceded the race to Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman.

Although Cheney voted in line with Trump’s agenda 92.9% of the time, her vote to impeach the former president in January 2021 led to her ouster as GOP conference chair. A year later, the Republican National Committee took the unprecedented step of formally censuring her for serving on the House January 6, 2021, committee.

After the race was called Tuesday night, Cheney remained defiant.

“No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty,” she said during her concession speech.

And on Wednesday, Cheney told NBC’s “The Today Show” that she is “thinking about” running for president and will make a decision in “the coming months.”

For Cheney, Tuesday’s election loss is likely the beginning of another chapter of a tumultuous political career.

As Liz Cheney takes on Trump, Republican donors line up behind her

CNN —

Bobbie and Bill Kilberg were expecting a few dozen people for their fundraiser Monday for GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, an intimate cocktail party they were planning at their home in McLean, Virginia.

But in the weeks since the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney for her involvement in the ongoing House select committee investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the couple was flooded with requests to come and meet the congresswoman and the event’s special guest, Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney.

So many people RSVP’d yes that Monday’s event was moved to another, larger venue. The Kilbergs finally had to cap the list of co-hosts when it hit 75.

The donor interest isn’t all for Cheney’s reelection bid for her House seat in Wyoming. More than two full years before the 2024 election, Cheney is emerging as the anti-Trump champion, and plenty of Republicans are glad to see it.

“We are moving beyond Donald Trump,” Bobbie Kilberg told CNN. “Enough, already. Enough’s enough.”

Kilberg and other allies insist Cheney remains focused on her reelection to the House this year, which includes a daunting primary challenge from her onetime adviser Harriet Hageman. Trump has endorsed Hageman, who has all but cleared the field of Republican challengers, and defeating Cheney remains one of the former President’s top priorities in the midterm cycle.

But several Republicans have said it’s not out of the question she could seek the GOP nomination for president if Trump runs again.

“Would it surprise me? Not even in the slightest,” said Landon Brown, a state representative in Wyoming and one of the few elected Republicans there publicly backing Cheney in the primary.

Through a spokesman, Cheney declined to comment for this story.

Cheney’s own activity suggests she is laying the groundwork for something more. Last year, she traveled to the early primary state of New Hampshire. She has been making speeches to national Republican organizations such as the centrist Ripon Society. And Cheney has demonstrated impressive fundraising prowess, including raising a personal record $2 million in the final quarter of 2021.

“People respond to people who are principled and who stand up and are their own person,” said former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia, who is attending the McLean fundraiser.

Both George W. Bush and Romney, the two living Republican presidential nominees besides Trump, have raised money for Cheney’s reelection effort, connecting her directly to their broad donor networks.

Among the others on the fundraiser’s invitation are several luminaries of the pre-Trump GOP and veterans of past Republican administrations, including Cheney’s parents, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, and her sister, Mary, and Mary’s wife, Heather.

Also expected to attend are former Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby, former presidential candidate and ex-Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, conservative lawyer Miguel Estrada and former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who served under Romney when he was governor of the Bay State.

Cheney’s alliance with Romney has drawn particular attention given his status as both an elder statesman and one of the most prominent elected Republicans to oppose Trump’s influence on the party.

“That baton has passed to Liz. She is the one,” said one Republican operative who has spoken with Cheney occasionally.

Despite her ouster from House GOP leadership last year, Cheney has enhanced her visibility in recent months. She has become a de facto spokeswoman for the anti-Trump wing of the party from her perch as the top Republican on the January 6 select committee – a role that could elevate her further if the panel holds public hearings on its findings this year.

The RNC’s censure last month of Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the other Republican on the select committee, seems to have galvanized opponents and skeptics of Trump within the party to rally around Cheney. Comstock said that in the days following the censure, former RNC members and staff reached out to express their outrage about the move.

But any pursuit of a White House bid would depend on Cheney’s performance against Hageman in the Wyoming primary on August 16. Given Trump’s animosity toward the congresswoman, the full power of his political operation could be directed toward her. And Hageman and her allies have seized on Cheney’s connections to powerful Republicans in Washington.

“As I have traveled throughout the state of Wyoming over the last six months, it has become very apparent to me that we are ready for new blood in Congress,” Hageman said at a recent event in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a longtime critic of Cheney.

Despite her considerable and growing campaign coffers, Cheney faces an uphill battle in Wyoming, the state Trump won by his widest margin in 2020.

“She hasn’t been really challenged hard,” said Brown, the Wyoming state representative. “I don’t think it’s a shoo-in like it has been in the past.”

But the prospect of defeating the Trump machine through the Wyoming primary is what has party bigwigs opening their wallets. And if Cheney is successful?

“I think she has all kinds of prospects,” said Comstock.