Candidate Harriet Hageman won the endorsement of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the highly contested Wyoming Republican primary that features embattled Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).
“Harriet will be a rock-ribbed conservative congresswoman who will always defend the Constitution,” Cruz told Fox News. “She knows the importance of standing up for individual constitutional rights and fighting back against the federal government, which wants to seize more land and prevent people from being able to provide for their families.”
Hageman, who is already endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said she was pleased to be supported by a senator in the high chamber.
Congressional candidate Harriet Hageman meets attendees at a rally at the Teton County Fair & Rodeo Grounds on June 14, 2022 in Jackson, Wyoming. (Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
“In many ways, Texas and Wyoming face the same struggles against the relentless onslaught of the federal government, and it will be nice to know that I have another ally in the other chamber when I get to Congress,” she told Fox News.
Cruz’s endorsement of Cheney comes at a key moment in the Republican primary. In three weeks, Wyoming voters will decide the fate of Cheney, who has been dropping in the polls due to her alliance with Democrats on the partisan January 6 Committee. PredictIt’s betting odds on Tuesday show Hageman is favored to handily defeat Cheney by 95 cents on the dollar. Cheney’s odds of winning the contest are pegged at 5 cents on the dollar.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) presides over a hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Hageman has surged with second quarter fundraising by capitalizing off Cheney’s alliance. Fifty-four percent of voters are less likely to support Cheney after she tangled with Trump on the committee. Trump won the state of Wyoming in 2020 with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Adding to Cheney’s woes, the Wyoming Republican Party and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have renounced Cheney. The Wyoming GOP voted in November to no longer recognize her as a Republican. McCarthy announced in February his endorsement of Hageman to defeat Cheney, a rare move for a minority leader.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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