Our Lady Cheney
What fate awaits the Wyoming congresswoman in today’s primary and what fate does she deserve?
“…this is at the heart of what our oath requires, that we love our country more. That we love her so much that we will stand above politics to defend her. That we will do everything in our power to protect our Constitution and our freedom that has been paid for by the blood of so many.” -Liz Cheney upon receiving the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, 2022
Today, Wyoming Republicans are at the polls voting in their primaries for the state and national candidates who will run in November’s general election. This will undeniably be one of the most watched races in the country this primary season due to the enormity of some of the questions it will answer about where the GOP in both the Cowboy State and the rest of the country are going.
Over the past year and a half, Republican Liz Cheney has faced some aggressive headwinds from the people and party she has loyally served for several years. Her stubborn insistence on telling her constituents and the American people the truth has earned her the ire of a former president, threats towards her and others in her life, removal from her leadership position amongst House Republicans, censure from both her state and national party, and ill-informed mistreatment from both the media and the public and from both the Left and the Right.
This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to join other members of the group Principles First who came to Wyoming from all over the country and from across the political spectrum to support Cheney and knock on doors to talk to voters about the primary and what their thoughts are on this very important and heavily covered race.
The congresswoman as well as her campaign’s staff and volunteers have experienced several threats during this primary. As one might expect, those threats increased when the committee investigating the January 6 riots began airing their public hearings. Typically, such threats are little more than tough words from weak people who have no real intentions of carrying them out. But as our political and civil discourse continues to sink beneath what were once American standards, people have become less tolerant and more unpredictable. Just as she looks out for her constituents, Cheney has been protective of the folks who remain in her camp.
Knowing that these threats existed, those of us with Principles First went anyways. Why? Because—like it or not—Cheney is fighting to preserve our republic and the very system that has made it work for almost 250 years. Because she has fearlessly put her neck out to defend our American traditions and laws and she deserves to have a hell of a lot more people fighting alongside her. Because putting your principles first means doing the right thing. Even when it isn’t the Right’s thing.
Despite our concerns, our group did not experience any threats. We were not chased off any doorsteps or threatened in any way. Yes, there are a lot of Cheney’s constituents who are ticked off at her and feel that she betrayed them personally by voting to impeach Trump and by continuing to investigate the efforts to steal the 2020 election. They’re encouraged to believe as much. No matter how negatively those lies affect them.
These lies being told to voters have been accompanied by multiple shots at the congresswoman’s career and association. In February of 2021, Cheney was censured by Wyoming’s GOP Central Committee following her vote to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, its occupants, and hundreds of law enforcement officers. During the month leading up to that vote, Cheney continued to be honest and forthcoming with her constituents and the American people about what she and everyone in the world saw that shameful January day. Why that honesty was viewed as sharply contrasting with the values of so many Wyoming Republicans is unclear.
If you listen to most pundits, Cheney is headed for certain defeat in this primary. Harriet Hageman, her challenger and one-time supporter, has received an endorsement from former president Trump and enjoys the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Polling and conversations with Wyoming voters also suggest the congresswoman may be on her way out. In a YouGov poll in June, her favorability rating among Republicans in her state was at only 18% while 59% of those respondents viewed her unfavorably.
These midterm primaries have yielded interesting results for Republican incumbents at both national and state levels who either voted to impeach or refused to use their positions to tamper with the will of the people in 2020. Candidates who had been hand-picked by President Trump have lost decisively in a few races, giving hope to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents wanting to move past our previous Commander in Chief.
As primaries began, this coalition of voters who are averse to insurrections were encouraged by the primary held on May 24 in the key state of Georgia where Governor Brian Kemp defeated Trump’s candidate—former Senator David Perdue—by around fifty (yes, 50) points. Kemp was widely expected to come out on top in his race, but not by such margins. Along with that, the result of Georgia’s Secretary of State race was much more surprising to folks who usually predict these things correctly.
Though he was expected by many to be handily defeated, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger managed to win and to win by around twenty points. The Secretary had famously refused to help “find” votes for Trump following the 2020 election and has been one of MAGA world’s most hated officials ever since. Consequently, he has found himself—and his family—on the receiving end of several vulgar and violent threats.
Raffensberger’s most significant primary challenger was the Trump-selected incumbent congressman representing Georgia’s 10th district in the U.S. House, Jody Hice. Among political pundits, pollsters, and scholars, Hice was expected to win. (Well, Raffensberger was expected to lose, anyways.) Instead, the healthy twenty-point margin victory was a pleasant surprise to those who were concerned that having Hice in charge would put significant elections in Georgia’s future in danger of partisan tampering, thus misrepresenting the wishes of Georgia voters.
However, since that May 24 primary, Republican members of Congress who voted for impeachment have largely met less fortunate results. In South Carolina, Rep. Tom Rice was rather soundly defeated by a Trump backed candidate. Reps Dan Newhouse and Jaime Herrera Beutler—both representing Washington—experienced different results with Newhouse winning his race, but Herrera Beutler losing hers. Michigan congressman Peter Meijer also went down—with assists from the Democrats—to his loosely-attached-to-reality challenger. Rep David Valadao prevailed over his challenger in California’s June primary but had a greater chance of doing so in his purple district.
There is an unquestionable amount of support for Trump in the state of Georgia, but his candidates lost and lost bigly there at the hands of many of his own voters. So why is it that at the same time, his voters in Wyoming—if looking at the polls—appear to be going along with whatever and whomever the former president tells them to?
For starters, Georgia voters have largely decided against what is akin to letting one of their friends (Trump) tell them who else they can be friends with (Kemp and Raffensberger). That’s not surprising given how little Republicans and Conservatives enjoy being told what to do. Along with that, hiring qualified candidates to work in important positions is apparently, well, important to them.
Finally, it’s because Wyoming, like many rural states and communities, has lost industry and large swaths of their communities for various reasons, while Georgia has seen an expansion of each. These losses have made it much easier for liars and frauds to convince folks that they’re the only one who cares about what they have been through and will do something about it. Not only that, they will do something to whomever they feel is to blame for those losses.
Perhaps with some bias, I have always believed residents of the rural states in the West and Midwest were tougher, more independent, realistic, and far less willing to take orders from those in Washington, D.C. and other such heavily populated, self-important places. Residents of these states consistently struck me as being closer in practice to Americans who went before us; having to work hard for much of what they had, always keeping their wits about them and common sense in practice. Not the kind of people who are easily fooled or taken in by over-indulged conmen who are hell-bent on turning this country into something different than what it is and what our Founders and ancestors intended it to be.
It is because of this bias (and experience) that I have been so surprised and disappointed by the response from Wyoming Republicans to their very own tough, deeply patriotic, and sincerely Conservative congresswoman. Regardless of who she is standing up to, pride should be taken in a woman and in a representative who is not easily pushed over by momentary foolishness and can handle feverish trends while remaining coolheaded and honest. It is because of this bias that I still—perhaps foolishly—expect Cheney to prevail tonight.
Hageman has emphasized the fact that she was born and raised right there in Wyoming, which she appears to believe fulfills any and all requirements to serve in the House of Representatives. Because Cheney was born in Wisconsin and spent much of her time growing up between Wyoming and the Washington, D.C. area (where her father served his state before being promoted), Hageman and others have labeled her a “carpetbagger.”
But Hageman and her supporters, though clearly proud of their roots, fail to consider that, had Hageman been born and raised in another state, her loyalties would lie there. Comparatively, the former Vice President’s daughter likely could have taken on any number of more lucrative careers or chosen to serve in any other state. But Cheney enjoys a lifetime of memories there too and chose to represent and work for the people of Wyoming; not D.C. or Virginia or anywhere else her parents made her visit or live when she was a child.
Cheney’s critics and detractors also fail to consider that she isn’t seeing this investigation through and demonstrating the integrity, honesty, and amount of grit needed to take on powerful people who have millions of angry supporters to spite Wyoming; she’s doing it all because she’s from Wyoming. Even when it’s tough, you see it through and finish the job. You protect your people.
When you’re lucky enough to find as strong and loyal a woman as Liz Cheney, you should hold on to her. If nothing else, such an understandably pro-Second Amendment state ought to have much more appreciation for someone who sticks to her guns.