Conservative Liz Cheney rocked the Wyoming fundraising world, collecting 10 times the donations of her nearest competitor in the state’s lone house race and collecting checks from titans in Wyoming and national Republican circles.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, reported to the Federal Election Commission that she raised $759,868.01 in the critical first quarter, and has cash on hand of $625,372.02.
Her top competitor for donations, State Sen. Leland Christensen, chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, raised $75,580.
It is Cheney’s second run for office in Wyoming. She ran in the 2014 Senate primary, but eventually dropped her challenge to Sen. Mike Enzi. Cheney is running to replace retiring Rep. Cynthia Lummis, whose daughter is working for Christensen.
She recently made headlines in calling out President Obama’s war on coal, and promised to fight efforts to put energy companies out of business. In fact, her campaign homepage features one big issue, “Coal Priorities.” Under that section, she said:
“Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, and the radical environmentalists have pledged to continue this effort that will, in Hillary’s words, ‘put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.’ The War on Coal is devastating our economy, hurting every community in Wyoming, and putting thousands of our neighbors out of work. It will lead to dramatic increases in utility prices, threaten the reliability of our power grid, and put our national security at risk.”
Cheney’s campaign finance chairman Bill Scarlett said in a memo that the candidate is on a roll. “Despite the fact that Liz’s opponents had a four-week head start on fundraising, Liz actually raised more money in Wyoming than any other candidate, has more Wyoming donors than any other candidate, and was honored to receive contributions from every county in the state. Liz raised a total of $730,258 and has more than $625,000 cash on hand and she didn’t accept one dollar of PAC money from Washington, D.C.,” he wrote.
Her FEC papers showed that she gave nearly $27,000 to her campaign to get it started.
Often in less populated states, candidates raise money out of state, and Cheney was no different. Scarlett said that 25 percent of her donations came from Wyoming. Apparently expecting to get hit for out of state donations, he noted that past congressional candidates have received 80 percent or higher from outside Wyoming.
Among her contributors was highly-regarded former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who offered $250.
Her list of donors also showed that she continues to have deep roots in national conservative politics, especially among the Bush administration. For example, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura offered the maximum, $5,400 each. Others included former Defense Secretary and Dick Cheney pal Donald Rumsfeld; Bush advisor Karl Rove; former Commerce Secretary Don Evans; and, of course, her parents.
She also received support from Facebook Vice President Joel Kaplan, a former Bush advisor, former Heritage Foundation head Edwin Feulner, beer scion Peter Coors, and businessman Boone Pickens.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
