Cheney’s team is bracing for a loss to a Trump-backed challenger in the state he won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign. Win or lose in deep red Wyoming, the 56-year-old daughter of a vice president vows not to disappear from national politics as she considers a 2024 presidential run. In the short term, though, Cheney faces a formidable threat from Republican challenger Harriet Hageman, an industry attorney of Cheyenne breeding who has taken advantage of the full fury of the Trump movement in her bid to oust Cheney from the House. “I’m still hoping the poll numbers are wrong,” said Landon Brown, a Wyoming state representative and vocal Cheney ally. “It will be a real shame if he loses. It shows how much of a stranglehold Donald Trump has on the Republican Party.” Tuesday’s contests in Wyoming and Alaska offer one of the final tests for Trump and his hardline politics ahead of November’s general election. So far, the former president has largely dominated the race to mold the GOP in his image, having helped install loyalists in key general election races from Arizona to Georgia to Pennsylvania. This week’s contests come just eight days after the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Florida estate, recovering 11 sets of classified files. Some marked “sensitive apartment information,” a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets. The Republican Party initially rallied behind the former president, though reaction was somewhat mixed as more details emerged. In Alaska, a recent change in state election law gives a recurring Trump critic, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a chance to survive the former president’s wrath, even after she voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial. Alaska’s top four Senate candidates, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election, where voters will rank them in order of preference. In all, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican members of the House joined every Democrat in supporting Trump’s impeachment in the days after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill as Congress sought to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Just two of those 10 House members won GOP primaries this year. The rest lost or declined to run for re-election. Cheney would be just the third to return to Congress if she defies expectations Tuesday. And Murkowski is the only pro-impeachment senator running for re-election this year. She faces 18 challengers — the most prominent of whom is Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who has been endorsed by Trump — in her bid to retain a seat she’s held for nearly 20 years. Trump has railed against Murkowski on social media and in the state of Alaska, where she hosted a rally with Tshibaka last month in Anchorage. Unlike vulnerable Republican candidates who sided with Trump in other states this summer, Murkowski continues to tout her bipartisan credentials. “When ideas come together on both sides, a little compromise in the middle, that lasts beyond administrations, beyond changes in leadership,” the Republican senator said in a video posted on social media over the weekend. . “This is what allows stability and certainty. And it comes through bipartisanship.” On the other side of the GOP stage, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, is hoping to spark a political comeback on Tuesday. Backed by Trump, she finished first among 48 candidates to qualify for a special election to replace Rep. Don Young, who died in March at age 88 after 49 years as Alaska’s lone member of the House. Palin is on Tuesday’s ballot twice: once in a special election to complete Young’s term and another for a full two-year House term that begins in January. He will challenge Republican Nick Begich and Democrat Mary Peltola in the special election and a larger field in the primary. Ever the underdog, Palin has spent the past few days attacking Murkowski, a fellow Republican, and those who established open voting for the 2020 primary and ranked elections. “I’ve said all along that ranked-choice voting was designed to benefit Democrats and RINOs, specifically Sen. Lisa Murkowski (who had no chance of winning a Republican nomination) along with other members of the Alaska political dynasty.” , Palin wrote in her recent statement calling for the law to be repealed. Back in Wyoming, Cheney’s political survival may depend on getting enough Democrats to vote in her Republican primary. While some Democrats have rallied behind her, it’s unclear whether there are enough in the state to make a difference. Biden won just 26% of the Wyoming vote in 2020. Many Republicans in the state — and in the country — have effectively excommunicated Cheney because of her outspoken criticism of Trump. The House GOP ousted her as the No. 3 House leader last year. And more recently, the Wyoming GOP and the Republican National Committee criticized her. Anti-Trump groups like U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s Country First PAC and the Republican Accountability Project have worked to encourage independents and Democrats to support Cheney in recent weeks. They are clearly disappointed by the expected outcome of Tuesday’s election, although some are optimistic about her political future. “What’s remarkable is that in the face of almost certain defeat he never wavered,” said Sarah Longwell, executive director of the Republican Accountability Project. “We were watching a national American figure being forged. It’s funny how small the election feels — the Wyoming election — because it feels bigger than it is now.” Cheney has seemingly welcomed defeat by devoting nearly every resource at her disposal to ending Trump’s political career since the insurgency. He emerged as a leader on the congressional committee investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, giving the Democratic-led panel genuine bipartisan credibility. She has also spent the vast majority of her time in committee instead of campaigning back home, a decision that still fuels murmurs of disapproval among some Wyoming allies. And he closed the campaign trail with an unwavering anti-Trump message. “In the 246-year history of our nation, there has never been a person who has posed a greater threat to our democracy than Donald Trump,” former Vice President Dick Cheney said in a recent ad produced by his daughter’s campaign. He continued, “There is nothing more important that he will ever do than lead the effort to make sure that Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office again.”
