On Tuesday, Donald Trump joined the majority of mainstream political observers in calling Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney’s Republican primary race a “big deal.”
The former president described the election, in which Ms. Cheney will face off against Harriet Hageman, as a “referendum” on the January 6 riots in the US Capitol and Ms. Cheney’s efforts to investigate them as vice-chair of the January 6 select committee in Congress.
“If Liz Cheney loses tonight, the Fake News Media will do everything they can to downplay it and pretend it wasn’t a referendum on the Unselects.” That it was no big deal,” Mr. Trump wrote on Tuesday on Truth Social. “In fact, it would be a huge deal, one of the biggest!”
The Wyoming primary polls close at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and poll data shows Ms. Cheney facing a massive defeat, possibly by as much as 20%.
Ms. Cheney’s Republican House colleagues aren’t exactly rooting for her, either.
“I don’t think she’ll win,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News on Tuesday. “I believe it will be a referendum on the January 6 Committee.”
The Wyoming incumbent is one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee, and one of only a few Republicans willing to publicly criticize party standard-bearer, Donald Trump. She was also one of ten Republican House members who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for his actions that sparked the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6.
This has strained relations between her and the Republican Party’s national and state wings.
The Wyoming GOP voted in February 2021 to formally censure the congresswoman, claiming that the “voice of the people” demanded it.
A year later, the Republican National Committee took similar action against Rep. Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the only other Republicans on the January 6 investigation.
“The Conference must not be sabotaged by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who have demonstrated, through actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to demolish President Trump more than they support regaining a Republican majority in 2022,” the RNC resolution stated.
Liz Cheney, for one, has stated that she is willing to criticize the former president’s attacks on the electoral process, even if it means losing her seat.
“If losing my House seat is the cost of standing up for the Constitution, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay,” she told The New York Times earlier this month.