Harriet Hageman, the Republican backed by Donald Trump, managed to take down the former president’s most prominent critic, Rep. Liz Cheney, in the GOP race for Wyoming’s at-large congressional seat on Tuesday.
Multiple outlets called the race shortly after 10 p.m. as Hageman led by more than 30 points with 19% of the votes counted. Cheney conceded shortly thereafter in a fiery speech in which she blasted Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and warned that more danger is on the horizon if Trump and fellow 2020 election deniers are voted into office.
“I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said. “And I mean it. This is a fight for all of us together.”
The contest between Cheney, a political scion and former member of House GOP leadership who came under fire for her continued rebuke of Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, and Hageman, Cheney’s onetime ally and informal adviser, became one of the most watched in the country as the former president and his allies ramped up efforts to take out the incumbent congresswoman.
Polls in the days leading up to the election showed Hageman with a commanding lead over Cheney, who continued to stand by her decision to speak out against Trump and join the Jan. 6 select committee, asserting that even if she lost the election, she would continue to play an active role in pushing back against his rhetoric surrounding the 2020 election results.
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Trump, who remains broadly popular in the state, prioritized defeating Cheney, having held a rally railing against her in Casper in May in a push to invigorate his base to vote against her.
He celebrated Cheney’s defeat Tuesday and thanked the people of Wyoming for voting out his political nemesis.
“Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now.”
Cheney, in her final ad, notably addressed “citizens across our great state and all across our country,” fueling speculation that she may launch a 2024 presidential bid — a possibility she has repeatedly voiced she is not ruling out.
Hageman, a Cheyenne lawyer and former Trump critic who had endorsed Cheney in previous races before voicing support for the former president after the 2016 election, resigned from her role as a national Republican committeewoman last September before entering the race. The Wyoming lawmaker managed to edge out a slew of other GOP hopefuls seeking to unseat Cheney for the Trump endorsement, which supporters say played a substantial role in aiding her in the race.
“Basically, we got to a point where Harriet’s [favorability rating], unfavs, and acknowledgment of the Trump endorsement among the electorate was great — we’re talking 65% favs and 90% of the people in the state knowing about the Trump endorsement before the Trump rally happened,” one Hageman adviser told the Washington Examiner, adding that the number of town halls and grassroots efforts played a significant role in her success.
“Once we were able to start spending money and just telling Harriet’s story, we barely made glancing blows at Liz in our creative [messaging strategy], but really, it’s just about Wyoming and Wyoming issues,” the adviser added.
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Cheney — the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who held the same House seat and leadership role during his time in Congress — saw a rapid rise in Congress, being elected to the No. 3 GOP position in the House in her second term before the GOP conference opted to remove her from the job, citing her vote for impeachment and criticisms of the former president.
Despite holding a conservative voting record, Liz Cheney faced attacks from GOP colleagues who accused her of being a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” with the Republican National Committee voting to censure her over her decision to join the Jan. 6 select committee and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) fundraising against his former leadership colleague.
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But despite facing sharp backlash for her position on Trump, she has repeatedly said she doesn’t regret her decision to stand by her beliefs, arguing that failing to condemn conspiracies surrounding the election results puts democracy at risk.
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“Our survival is not guaranteed,” Cheney said Tuesday. “History has shown us over and over again how poisonous lies destroy free nations.”
The elder Cheney also spoke out in support of his daughter, cutting ads in an effort to rally supporters in the state in which he remains popular to back her in the race. And a handful of Democratic lawmakers called for Democrats to change parties to engage in the primary in a push to boost Liz Cheney in the deep-red state. But despite their efforts, the Wyoming incumbent fell short of the votes needed to overcome the challenges she faced in the Cowboy State.
Liz Cheney is the fourth of 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment to lose their primary.
The seat is expected to remain in Republican control in November.
