CHEYENNE, Wyoming — The primary for embattled Rep. Liz Cheney’s at-large Wyoming seat is not for another 14 months. But with seven Republican candidates already vying to replace her, a primary-within-a primary is in full swing.
Several of Cheney’s primary challengers openly acknowledge they will have to consolidate support to prevent her from eking a victory for renomination with a small plurality of the vote, handing allies of former President Donald Trump an upset defeat despite her unpopularity.
“By the end of the year,” state Rep. Chuck Gray of Casper told the Washington Examiner, “it will be clear [which] candidate is the strongest in this race.”
Trump’s expected endorsement of one of Cheney’s primary challengers will be a key factor in clearing the field. While his team evaluates their options, those in the fray are signaling their allegiance with the president on the very issue that caused Cheney to become his most outspoken Republican critic and cost her the No. 3 House Republican leadership position: the 2020 election.
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Gray, who attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, recently visited the Republican Maricopa County Audit site, saying it is uncovering “unconscionable things” and that Trump rightfully won the 2020 election.
But the 31-year-old former conservative talk radio host isn’t staking his whole campaign on election issues. A fan of Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and a member of the Wyoming Legislature’s version of the Freedom Caucus, he’s racked up endorsements from fellow state officials to focus on his legislative tactics and accomplishments, such as a bill to set aside money to fund lawsuits against neighboring states that limits Wyoming’s ability to export coal.
Darin Smith, a homegrown Wyoming attorney who’s held positions with the Family Research Council and the Christian Broadcasting Network, rallied at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. However, he said he did not go inside but instead started a “back the blue” chant as “rabble-rousers” started to give Capitol Police a hard time.
While he accepts President Joe Biden was certified as the winner, he thought then-Vice President Mike Pence should have denied certification of the results until an audit could be completed.
Trump’s endorsement is “a massive factor” because “he’s not going to pick a loser, he’s going to pick a winner,” said Smith, a father of five. Having previously run against Cheney for the Republican congressional nomination in a crowded 2016 field with 15% of the vote, Smith said he knows how the Cheney “machine” works.
But if it gets to a point close to the primary, he said, “[If] I’m not the lead candidate, I’ll bow out for sure,”
Smith’s “political father” is Foster Friess, a Republican megadonor and chairman of Smith’s campaign before he died at 81 last month.
Friess could be a case study in the limits of a Trump plug. Trump endorsed Friess in his 2018 gubernatorial run, who came in second to now-Gov. Mark Gordon in a six-way primary.
Republican operative Jeff Wallack in Sheridan, Wyoming, is working with donors and activists to vet Cheney’s challengers and provide recommendations to Trump’s team through Corey Lewandowski, hoping to decide within the next few weeks.
“We’re hoping that we can take proven candidates and narrow it down to one or two, to make a recommendation in July,” Wallack said. “And then we have no idea of knowing when the president will do something.”
Emails obtained by the Washington Examiner show Wallack reached out to the congressional staff for Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Navy SEAL, and Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, a Green Beret, for assistance in vetting two of Cheney’s challengers who are veterans: Denton Knapp and Bryan Miller.
Wallack’s mention of his position as the Wyoming Republican Party revenue chairman raised eyebrows since the state party is supposed to be neutral in the primary. Still, Wallack said the state party is not involved with the effort and that he mentioned it to “identify myself as someone who is active in Wyoming.”
Crenshaw’s office declined to assist in the vetting, and it’s unknown whether Waltz’s office responded.
Not everyone in the field is on the same page when it comes to setting up a one-on-one challenge against Cheney.
State Sen. Anthony Bouchard, known for being a hardheaded legislator who takes pride in challenging Republican leadership, was the first to announce his candidacy and indicated he wouldn’t cede to the Trump favorite. However, several operatives expressed their distaste for him, one calling him “arrogant.”
“It would not be fair to drop out” when campaign donors “want me to move forward,” Bouchard told the Washington Examiner in an interview. He said he passed $500,000 in campaign donations and regularly sends email fundraising blasts.
That could make Bouchard either the main Cheney challenger — a prospect that terrifies operatives who think he will be defined by stories about his ex-wife, whom he impregnated at 14 when he was 18 and then married before they divorced, and she died by suicide a few years later — or the spoiler candidate that siphons off votes away from the Trump pick.
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Bouchard quipped it is easy for other candidates to commit to consolidation because “they’re not anywhere near where we are with fundraising numbers.”
“I mean, quite frankly, some of these people are looking for the Trump endorsement. That’s their key strategy,” Bouchard said. He is also not focused as much on election integrity issues as some of the other candidates are. “My key strategy has been to run a real race, to raise money, and to get the word out.”
Cheney, for her part, is projecting confidence about her position.
“If they think that they are going to come into Wyoming and make the argument that the people of Wyoming should vote for someone who is loyal to Donald Trump over somebody who is loyal to the Constitution, I welcome that debate,” she recently said on NBC.
