Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is preparing for a busy August in Washington, DC, away from the Wyoming campaign trail where she lags Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman by 30 points.
Cheney’s participation with the January 6 committee is sure to distract her focus on the Republican primary. With the Wyoming primary election on August 16, most members will be focused on winning reelection in their home districts. But for Cheney and her partisan January 6 Committee, “August is expected to be a busy month,” CNN reported. “Committee members feel they have just scratched the surface.”
Instead of visiting Wyoming to knock on doors, hold local rallies, and attend campaign events, Cheney will be fixated on former President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, where the committee “is still gathering evidence and has reengaged in negotiations with some witnesses who had previously resisted sitting for a deposition.
On Thursday, Cheney made clear during a committee hearing that the business of combatting Trump will continue even as Republican voters are ready to cast ballots in a few weeks. “We have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American people, and more to gather,” Cheney said.
If Cheney loses the August 16 primary, she will remain a member of the committee until 2023, when the new members are sworn into Congress. That gives Cheney about four months to focus on the committee after the primary election.
Leading up to the primary, Cheney’s focus on the committee ruin her hopes of retaining her seat, according to Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). “The travel that I have done around the state, I think she has a lot of work to do if she hopes to win the primary,” he told Fox News.
“Wyoming politics is very personal,” Barrasso continued. “It’s face-to-face. It’s town to town, and as you know, Liz and I disagree. I voted against the impeachment of President Trump. She was for it. I voted against the partisan January 6 commission. She’s all in on that.”
In February, Cheney expressed her own reasons for staying in Washington. “I’m not going to convince the crazies and I reject the crazies,” Cheney said about a Republican event for Wyoming voters.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) gets a thumbs up from former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) before the start of a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in the East Room of the White House July 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Cheney is well behind in the polls. The polling data suggests Cheney’s alliance with Democrats on the partisan January 6 Committee is hurting Cheney’s reelection hopes. 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.
Brad Coker, managing director of the polling firm Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, stated last week that Cheney will lose the primary against Hageman. “The big story is Liz Cheney is going to get beat,” Coker reflected. “That’s a foregone conclusion.”
“This race is more about Liz Cheney than it is about Donald Trump,” he added.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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