LIZ CHENEY LOOKS SET TO LOSE CONGRESS SEAT TO TRUMP BACKED RIVAL

Widely praised for her defence
of democracy during the
January 6 committee hearings,
Liz Cheney looks set to lose her
seat in Congress on Tuesday
to a rival backed by former US
president Donald Trump.

Opinion polls show Cheney
trailing far behind conservative
lawyer Harriet Hageman – who
has echoed Trump’s false claims
of widespread voter fraud – in a
Republican primary election to
decide Wyoming’s lone member
in the House of Representatives.
Victory for Hageman would
continue a recent winning
streak for Trump-backed
candidates in congressional
primaries and deal a blow to
remnants of the Republican
party establishment.

Cheney is vice-chairwoman of
the House panel investigating
the deadly attack on the US
Capitol on 6 January 2021.
She has used the committee’s
televised hearings to eviscerate
Trump and members of her
own party who remain loyal
to him and his “big lie” that
electoral fraudsters caused his
defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.

The three-term congresswoman
has also made the existential
struggle for American
democracy a central part of

her re-election campaign in
Wyoming.

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

But Cheney’s status as an
unyielding leader of the antiTrump resistance has alienated
many Wyoming Republicans,
many of whom accuse her
of putting personal ambition
in Washington ahead of her
constituents at home.

She trailed Hageman 52% to 30%
in a survey of likely primary
voters from 7 to 11 July published
by Wyoming’s Casper StarTribune. A University of Wyoming
poll released last week put
Hageman’s lead at 29 percentage
points.

Supporters of Cheney, the
56-year-old daughter of former
vice-president Dick Cheney,
believe she still has a fighting
chance if enough Democrats and
independents cross over and vote
for her, which is allowed in the

state’s primary system.

But political strategist Terry
Sullivan, who managed the
Republican senator Marco
Rubio’s 2016 presidential
campaign, regards Cheney’s
defeat on Tuesday as a “foregone
conclusion” but sees her efforts
as part of a larger battle.

“Liz Cheney isn’t fighting for
re-election – she’s fighting for
the direction of the Republican
party,” he told the Reuters
news agency, noting that some
observers have discussed
whether Cheney should mount a
presidential campaign in 2024.
“It’s more of a kind of a beginning,
not an end.”

Cheney supported Trump’s
agenda 93% of the time,
according to the FiveThirtyEight
website. But she was stripped
of her role as the No 3 House
Republican for voting to impeach
him on a charge of inciting the
January 6 Capitol attack.

She was among 10 House
Republicans to do so and to earn
the former president’s wrath and
vow of revenge. Three others
have already lost their primaries
– four decided not to run again
and two won their contests.

The fate of another Trump
adversary, Senator Lisa

Murkowski of Alaska, was less
clear on Tuesday as the state’s
non-partisan primary format
allows the top four vote-getters
to advance to the 8 November
general election, which could
bring a possible rematch of
Murkowski and Trump-backed
Kelly Tshibaka.

Alaska voters will also determine
whether to pick Sarah Palin, a
former governor and 2008 vicepresidential nominee whom
Trump endorsed for the state’s
only House seat.

Palin finished first among 48
candidates to qualify for a special
election seeking to replace
congressman Don Young, who
died in March at age 88, after
49 years as Alaska’s sole House
member.

Palin is on Tuesday’s ballot
twice: once in a special election
to complete Young’s term and
another for a full two-year House
term starting in January.

Most of the candidates Trump has
backed this election season have
triumphed in what his supporters
say is a sign of his continued sway
over the party as he considers
whether to run for office again in
2024.