CHEYENNE, Wyoming — The Perry family will have a lot to talk about over the holidays.
Beyond the catching up necessary in a family of seven, this crew will have weightier questions to answer. One of them is whether or not the family matriarch, Rep. Liz Cheney, whose husband is attorney Philip Perry, will run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming next year or seek reelection for the House seat she already holds.
“I’m going to really take time over the holidays with the family and talk it through and then make an announcement after the beginning of the year,” said Cheney in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Cheney, 53, daughter of George W. Bush’s vice president Dick Cheney, a member of the House GOP leadership, says she’s not just thinking of what’s best for her and her family, which includes four children.
“The main issue for me is where I can be most effective for the people of Wyoming. And just sort of looking at the range of issues and challenges and deciding where I’m going to be able to be sort of the most effective voice for the values and our way of life and conservatism,” she said.
First elected to Congress in 2016, her colleagues chose her to be the House Republican Conference chair last November after they lost the majority. It is a move that makes her the No. 3 Republican in the chamber behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise.
The position makes her the House GOP’s top communicator, a job perfectly suited for Cheney. She is comfortable delivering a crisp and clear message for a party still navigating several moving parts, such as its new populist coalition, woke culture, Never Trumpers, shifting foreign policy, and a Democratic majority hellbent on impeaching the president.
But her first concern is Wyoming, a breathtaking state whose residents rely on agriculture and energy for economic growth while still preserving and conserving the health and beauty of their abundant natural resources.
“If you look at sort of the pioneers who first settled in Wyoming, and it really is a rugged individual. It’s about people. And certainly, from an economic perspective, coming out of the real devastation of the massive overreach of the federal government during the Obama years.”
Wyoming is a pro-life, pro-gun state. “I think if the rest of the country shared more of the views that we hold in Wyoming,” Cheney says, “we’d be a lot better off.”
“I always think it’s important when we have the chance to bring people from other parts of the country out to see Wyoming and to understand what incredible stewards of the land our coal companies are, for example. And to take people to see areas that have been reclaimed after those areas have been mined and the extent to which all of our energy companies are deeply concerned about the environment and have got the technology and the responsibility and the dedication to making sure that we’re able to get access to those resources and protect our environment at the same time,” she said of the coal and energy industries.
Cheney describes trying to accomplish anything in the Democratic-led Congress as frustrating. She says her relationship with President Trump is outstanding.
“We have a very good relationship,” she says. “Even when there are issues that we might disagree on, the president listens, and we have good discussions and talk things through.” Recently, the Trumps had Cheney join them at Game 5 of the World Series in Washington.
Cheney’s attendance at the game came the same day the president vividly announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi during a U.S. military raid. She applauds the accomplishments of the military, stressing the operation as an example of why the United States needs enough people on the ground working with its allies.
“We’re getting intelligence, and we’re able to respond as quickly as our guys did over the weekend so we can make sure that ISIS isn’t resurgent,” she said.
Cheney parted ways with the president several weeks ago when he announced he was pulling American troops out of northern Syria. She reserved her harsh criticisms, though, for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a non-interventionist Republican.
“I do not believe in the Rand Paul isolationist view of the world. I think that we can’t keep ourselves safe and secure if we withdraw all of our forces and end our alliances around the world,” she said.
On those issues, she says she is always going to be clear and direct.
“I think that’s very much a Wyoming characteristic. A sort of look-people-in-the-eye and tell them the truth. And I think that’s very important, and I’ll continue to do that.”
