House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will host a fundraiser next week for Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) opponent, Harriet Hageman.
McCarthy will be joined by nearly 100 Republican members who support Hageman’s bid to oust “warmonger” Cheney, Henry Rodgers of the Daily Caller first reported. The fundraiser will be held at the Washington, DC, home of Jeff Miller, a prominent lobbyist who supported McCarthy’s rise to House speaker.
According to Punchbowl News, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Jim Banks (R-ID), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), and David Bossie will co-host the event, among others. “Needless to say, the number of sitting House Republicans who are lining up against Cheney is quite stunning,” the outlet noted.
McCarthy’s announced his stunning endorsement of Hageman in February. Party leaders typically rarely endorse against sitting members of Congress. But after Cheney deserted the Republican party by allying herself with Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 committee and reportedly “orchestrated unprecedented” Republican sabotage, McCarthy presumably believed Cheney must be ousted from her seat.
Then-Wyoming Republican gubernatorial candidate Harriet Hageman addresses a meeting of the Wyoming Business Alliance in Casper, Wyoming, on Wednesday, May 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver)
Cheney responded to McCarthy’s support of Hageman by charging her supporters for an audience during one of her infrequent visits to her home state.
McCarthy’s decision to support Hageman mirrors the overall criticism of Cheney. “Liz Cheney has lost Wyoming. Liz Cheney doesn’t live in Wyoming. She doesn’t represent us,” Hageman told Breitbart News in January. “She doesn’t represent our values.”
Cheney, who has constantly backed the establishment’s status quo, has dramatically fallen out of favor with Republicans. In May, Cheney was removed as GOP conference chair after the Republican caucus held a no-confidence vote upon reaching a boiling point with the daughter of the former vice president Dick Cheney.
Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) of the House panel investigating the January 6, listens as Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) makes his case before the House Rules Committee seeking contempt of Congress charges against former President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the Capitol in Washington, December 14, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
In November, the Wyoming GOP voted to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican. The Republican National Committee in February symbolically censured Cheney for allying with Democrats and are weighing whether to defund her campaign.
In January, a straw poll among GOP activists revealed Trump-endorsed Hageman holds a commanding lead over Cheney. The poll, conducted by the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee via secret ballot, showed Hageman won 59 votes and Cheney six, a 53-point victory by Hageman.
Cheney has a powerful fundraising machine with which to oppose Hageman’s surging campaign. But Hageman has growing support among Wyoming voters, former President Donald Trump, and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, who reportedly dubbed Cheney the “ringleader” of the “treasonous ten.”
The Wyoming primary is on August 16.