Anti-trump Republicans try to save Cheney’s Wyoming campaign

The 56-year-old is trailing Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman by 22 percentage points

REPUBLICAN groups in Wyoming are launching a last-ditch effort to save Liz Cheney from becoming the most highprofile victim of Donald Trump’s political revenge campaign.

The outspoken representative, who is vice-chair of the January 6 committee investigating Mr Trump’s actions that day, is receiving new two-pronged support for the upcoming state primaries, which will take place on Aug 16.

The 56-year-old is trailing Trumpbacked challenger Harriet Hageman by 22 percentage points, according to a recent poll in Wyoming’s Casper Startribune, but a covert operation simultaneously to entice wavering Democrats and attack Ms Hageman is under way, a new report claims.

According to Axios, two seemingly unrelated political groups recently popped up to try to stymie Hageman’s challenge. Wyomingites Defending Freedom and Democracy is running digital and television ads and encouraging Democrats in the state to cross party lines, it says.

At the same time, Conservatives for a Strong America is portraying Ms Hageman as a “plastic conservative” secretly in league with Ms Cheney and critical of Mr Trump.

Ms Hageman chose to support Ted Cruz during the Republican primary election in 2016 and at the time called Mr Trump “the weakest candidate,” according to The New York Times.

In a bid to undermine Ms Hageman’s messaging, the group is also trying to boost other pro-trump backers in an effort to split the anti-cheney vote. But Ms Hageman still has the biggest dog in the fight. The largest supporter group, Wyoming Values, has received $500,000 from Trump’s leadership PAC and spent more than $800,000 opposing Ms Cheney and supporting Ms Hageman.

Less than 10 days out, it may be too little too late for Ms Cheney.

She has recently put her father and former vice-president Dick Cheney front and centre of her campaign, creating headlines by branding Mr Trump: “The greatest threat to our Republic.” But in the fallout of the Roe v Wade supreme court decision, she angered Democrats who may have lent her their support by saying that she has “always been strongly pro-life”.

However, defeat in 2022 may put her in a stronger position for the 2024 presidential contest.

Ms Cheney’s fierce anti-trump message has strengthened her national brand while expanding a national network of donors and Trump critics in both parties who could boost a prospective White House run.