They may be on opposite poles among House Republicans in their attitudes toward former President Donald Trump, but Rep. Liz Cheney got an unexpected compliment from firebrand freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on her conservative voting record.
“Let me remind everyone, while Democrats are being fooled by Liz Cheney right now, they should remember that she is not a Democrat,” the Georgia Republican said Thursday on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast about her House colleague from Wyoming. “As a matter of fact, she has a very conservative voting record. More conservative than some of my Republican colleagues, by the way.”
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Voting scorecards calculated by conservative organizations back up Greene’s assertion about Cheney, who was first elected to Wyoming’s lone House seat in 2016. Heritage Action gives Cheney a lifetime score of 80%, while the American Conservative Union puts her lifetime score at 78%. FiveThirtyEight found Cheney voted in line with former President Donald Trump’s agenda 93% of the time.
Greene made the comment while arguing Cheney, who she says she has “left the Republican Party,” is using her position on the Jan. 6 Select Committee to court Democrats to vote for her in Wyoming’s Republican primary this year.
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“Democrats, while you think it’s fun because Cheney is totally dishing on Trump and trying to do everything she can to destroy us and Trump and Ivanka now and all these people, you’re getting tricked,” Greene said. “You’re voting for a snake that’s going to bite you, too.”
Cheney was stripped of her No. 3 House GOP leadership position last year over her vocal criticism of Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and she faced further shunning after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed her to the Democratic-controlled select committee to investigate Jan. 6.
“She’s trying to do everything she can to trick the Democrats to show, ‘Oh, I’m a team player. I’m going to help you Democrats’ so that they will vote for her in her Republican primary,” Greene said of Cheney.
The winner of Wyoming’s Aug. 16 Republican primary for its at-large congressional seat is all but certain to win the general election in the heavily Republican-leaning state. Cheney faces lawyer and longtime Republican Party official Harriet Hageman, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed.
Voters must be registered Republicans to vote in the primary, but Wyoming allows voters to switch their voter registration on the day of the election at polling locations.
That rule has led Republicans to worry that people who consider themselves Democrats will switch their registration to Republican simply to influence the primary and then switch back to being Democrats after the election. Some Wyoming Republican operatives and officials blamed crossover voting for Trump-endorsed candidate Foster Friess losing a 2018 gubernatorial primary, in part because a dark money 501(c)4 group named “Switch for Wyoming” called for Democrats and independents to switch registration to vote in the Republican primary.
However, voter registration data for the 2018 election shows crossover voting had little impact on the primary. It’s possible those registered as Republicans may personally agree more with Democrats but remain registered Republican to have more of a say in their likely Republican-elected officials.
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Greene also echoed Trump’s call for Republicans to back only one candidate. Several other candidates beyond Hageman remain in the primary, including state Sen. Anthony Bouchard. Wyoming has no primary runoff, giving Cheney a chance to win the election with less than 50% of the vote.
“Republicans in Wyoming, you have to unite behind one candidate,” Greene said. “Because Democrats are going to come in your primary and to help get her across the line.”
