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CASPER, WYO – Since her father’s first victory 44 years ago, Republican Liz Cheney and her family have never lost an election in Wyoming. When George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney as his opponent, the Republican ticket won by about 40 points, twice.
Former President Donald Trump is determined to end this series this summer by uniting aggressively behind main contender Harriet Hedgeman, whom he bets could oust his most outspoken Republican critic in Congress.
Over the weekend, he found himself in a very different Wyoming from years past, with thousands applauding him as he fought Cheney and linked what he called “the failed foreign policies of Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden.”
Attendees laughed when a photo of Congresswoman’s body and the face of former President George W. Bush appeared on the top screen of the Ford Wyoming Center. “I think it looks good,” Trump joked. “Liz Cheney is America’s last.”
Trump has recalibrated his Republican stance after initial setbacks
The August 16 primary in Wyoming was the next major test of Trump’s efforts to oust Republican elected officials who were critical of him and fought his false attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
His crusade dealt a severe blow last week in Georgia, where Republican voters in the primary election overwhelmingly renamed Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger over candidates who were strongly supported by the former president.
These losses followed a weak record in earlier competitions, which included high-profile defeats of his favorite candidates in Idaho, Nebraska and North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, the candidate Trump backed for the US Senate is counting. Taken together, the results raised questions in the party about his influence.
Saturday’s rally in Casper was a moment when the former president and his movement regrouped. After failing to oust Republicans in Georgia who rejected attempts to undermine the election, Trump turned to campaigning for a better chance of success because of strong anti-Cheney sentiment in the Republican ranks in Wyoming.
Cheney, who removed her schedule for the weekend after developing covid-19, declined to comment on the story. Hedgeman, a lawyer and former Republican National Committee member who declined to be interviewed, told a crowd in the 8395-seat arena that conservative Wyoming was fed up with Republicans, “who are working harder to distract attention.” from the failures of the current administration than they do to protect us from it. “
Unlike Georgia, where Kemp and Rafensperger conducted more nuanced campaigns when it came to addressing Trump, Cheney, a three-term congresswoman who raised more than $ 10 million for her re-election campaign, did not apologize for opposing 45 The president, even as a local Republican, condemned her.
On Friday, in a video released after she applied for the primary, Cheney presented the race as a referendum on “the rule of law” and “our founding principles”, leaning on her role in the House of Representatives committee investigating the case. January 2021, an attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. The panel, which will hold public hearings in June, questioned and sought information from some of Trump’s closest allies and some colleagues who relieved her of her third Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, which she held until last May.
“I will not hesitate or back down. I will not succumb to pressure or intimidation. I know where to draw the line and I know that some things are not for sale, “said Cheney. “What we do in this election in Wyoming matters.”
Republican activists in Wyoming have taken many steps to reject and try to discredit Cheney. After she joined nine other Republicans in the House of Representatives to impeach Trump after the Capitol uprising, the US party voted to condemn her. In November, she voted not to recognize her as the party’s candidate for Congress. Two months earlier, Trump backed Hedgeman, who once worked to block him from the party’s 2016 nomination.
In Casper, Republicans who came to see Trump, Hedgeman and a constellation of MAGA guest stars said they were outraged by Cheney’s actions and agreed with Trump’s criticism of the Jan. 6 uprising.
George Clark, 69, of Buffalo, Wyatt, a ranch supporting Hedgeman, said he contacted Cheney’s office during the investigation and was annoyed when he received a letter-form defending her. “When she votes with the Democrats, it not only hurts Wyoming, it hurts the whole country,” Clark said. “So Cheney and Trump didn’t get along. She decided to listen to her father. Fine. She is suitable for her father, but she is not suitable for us.
Trump has spent months trying to persuade Republicans to look at it this way, and his supporters have also looked for ways to make it difficult for Cheney to survive the challenge.
List of Trump support for Republican primers in 2022
The former president and his allies have tried unsuccessfully to change the rules for voting in Wyoming, including through calls from Trump, his advisers and others to put pressure on government officials and the Republican governor. Last year, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate won by one vote a bill that would have required a run-off in a primary election in which no candidate won a majority. Trump was outraged by the governor, with whom he spoke in person, advisers said.
The proposal to close the primaries for independents and democrats did not fail. The fear in Trump’s orbit, according to four advisers, is that so many Democrats will change and vote for Cheney that she could make the race closer than people expect.
Here in Casper, Trump told the crowd that he was greeted by Governor Mark Gordon when he landed, and rebuked Gordon for offering him a hat instead of the electoral changes he asked for. “I’d rather not have a hat,” Trump said. “I prefer Democrats not to vote in Republican primary.”
Hageman’s campaign expressed confidence that cross-voices would not be enough to save Cheney, although they said they thought finding them was clearly part of her strategy. Cheney’s campaign works to divide voters for Trump among several contenders she faces, renting a billboard near the rally with quotes from Hedgeman in 2016, who attack Trump as “xenophobic” and unfit to lead the party. According to Hageman spokesman Tim Murto, this is a “media game” that will not win votes. Several Republicans, including State Sen. Anthony Bouchard, opposed calls to leave the race.
Hedgeman’s campaign is led by a group of Trump allies, including Murto, Bill Stepien, Nick Trainer and Justin Clark. In a recent interview, Trump boasted of his ability to defeat Cheney and said “the people of Wyoming can’t stand her.”
Councilors said the former president often attacked the congresswoman, often raging about her family. Defeating her, they say, is his top priority as he makes approvals in the 2022 cycle. And in an interview, Trump vainly suggested that Cheney may not apply for re-election, although he eventually did. “If someone is at a low level and has not submitted documents, I wonder why,” he said. “She’s 15 percent.”
A poll released by the pro-Haygman Growth Club on Friday put the contender well ahead of Cheney, with only a quarter of Republican voters supporting the congresswoman. This was a stronger position than the Trump-approved candidates in Georgia and some other states, which were facing initial defeats this year.
Several other candidates Trump is campaigning for elsewhere, including Nebraska Gov. Charles Herbster and Republican Madison Kotorn (RN.C.), have fallen short of opinion polls and are financially opposed by Republican establishment figures in their states.
Trump’s advisers said he was angry at the defeat of former Senator David Purdue, who lost to Kemp in Georgia, and MP Jody Hayes (R-Ga.), Who was defeated by Rafensperger. Trump saw both as inconveniences and saw Purdue as lazy, advisers said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.
In Casper, Trump made little mention of the losses, except to criticize the media for not covering his overall record for winning primary elections, where he largely supports safe incumbents. He also condemned the cross-vote in Georgia, where all voters can choose which primary election they want to vote for, from Democrats who opposed Perdue and Hice.
In the interview, Trump boasted about how many Republicans supporting the impeachment have already been forced to retire, describing their Republican brand as “better than ever.” Four of the 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump in January 2021 have chosen to retire.
Trump’s team has repeatedly pointed to his enduring popularity with Republicans in Wyoming and elsewhere. In Casper, the mob easily set a record for the largest political rally in the country’s least populous state. Participants wore Trump equipment from his previous campaigns and hats and shirts, which suggested that the 2024 campaign was inevitable. Hundreds carried goods bearing the phrase “Ultra MAGA,” a recent term coined by Democratic strategists as a derogatory label that was adopted almost immediately by Trump supporters.
“Hello, Ultra MAGA-ers!” Said MP Andy Biggs (Arizona), one of several pro-Trump Republicans who flew to Casper for the rally. Republican candidates from Utah and Colorado also made the trip, trying to confront Trump and his allies. Among them was Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who is considered a potential Republican rival to Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in 2024.
“We need freedom fighters in Congress,” Biggs said. “We will lay the groundwork for the return of our president, President Donald Trump, to the White House.
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