The third-term congresswoman and her allies entered the day downbeat about her prospects, knowing Trump’s endorsement had given Harriet Hageman a significant boost in the state she won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign. Cheney was already looking ahead. to a political future beyond Capitol Hill, which could include a 2024 presidential run, potentially setting her on another collision course with Trump. Cheney described her loss as the start of a new chapter in her political career as she addressed a small gathering of supporters, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, at the edge of a vast field flanked by mountains and hay bales. “Our work is far from over,” he said Tuesday night. Hinting at a presidential run of her own, she later added, “I’ve said since January 6th that I will do whatever it takes to make sure that Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office again — and I mean it.” Nearly 600 kilometers to the east, Hageman’s celebratory supporters gathered at a huge outdoor rodeo and western culture festival in Cheyenne, many wearing cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans. The results were a stark reminder of the Republican party’s rapid shift to the right. A party once dominated by national security-oriented, business-friendly conservatives like her father now belongs to Trump, buoyed by his populist appeal and, above all, by his denial of defeat in the 2020 election. Echoing Trump, Hageman, a farm lawyer, falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” as she courted Trump loyalists. Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman reacts during her primary night party in Cheyenne, Wyo., Tuesday night. (Eli Imadali/Reuters) Those lies, which have been dismissed by federal and state election officials along with Trump’s attorney general and judges he has appointed, have turned Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president to the clearest voice within the party warning that he represents a threat to democracy. rules. “We’re facing a moment where our democracy is really under attack and under threat,” Cheney told CBS News earlier Tuesday. “And those of us across the board — Republicans, Democrats and Independents who believe deeply in freedom and who care about the Constitution and the future of the country — have an obligation to put that above party.”
He voted to impeach Trump
Cheney’s defeat would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The daughter of a former vice president, she comes from one of the most prominent political families in Wyoming. And in Washington, he was the No. 3 House Republican, an influential voice in Republican politics and policy with an outstanding conservative voting record. But after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, Cheney voted to impeach Trump and made it her primary mission to ensure he never serves in the Oval Office again. He overcame Republican censure and death threats to serve as a leader on the congressional panel investigating Trump’s role in the insurgency. After the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, Cheney voted to impeach Trump and made it her primary mission to ensure that he would never serve in the Oval Office again. (Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press) Cheney will now be forced to leave Congress at the end of her third and final term in January. He is not expected to leave Capitol Hill quietly. She will continue her leadership role on the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack until it disbands at the end of the year. And she is actively considering a 2024 White House run — as a Republican or an independent — having vowed to do everything in her power to fight Trump’s influence in her party.
