Less than two months out from the Republican primary in Wyoming, Rep. Liz Cheney is facing almost insurmountable odds in her race against Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman.
With two recent polls showing the congresswoman seriously trailing her challenger, her campaign is now reaching out to Wyoming Democrats for support.
“In the last week, Wyoming Democrats have received mail from Ms. Cheney’s campaign with specific instructions on how to change their party affiliation to vote for her. Ms. Cheney’s campaign website now has a link to a form for changing parties,” according to The New York Times.
The Times explains that, in Wyoming, it is not all that unusual for Republican candidates to ask Democrats to switch parties ahead of primaries. Wyoming is a deep red state where registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by more than 4 to 1.
The issue is that, in a February interview with the Times, Cheney was asked if she might resort to this strategy and she replied, “That is not something that I have contemplated, that I have organized or that I will organize.“ She said she would “work hard for every single vote.”
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But that was then and this is now, and you know what they say about desperate times.
It’s unlikely Wyomingites in either party will take kindly to Cheney’s latest flip-flop.
Asked for a comment on Cheney’s new strategy, Hageman’s campaign manager Carly Miller said, “Liz Cheney told The New York Times that she wouldn’t be encouraging Democrats to raid the Republican primary, but I guess the drive to hold onto power is just too strong for her to keep her word.”
She added, “What Cheney doesn’t understand is that Democrats will drop her like a bad habit after she’s no longer useful to them on the Jan. 6 committee.”
Will Cheney lose her seat in Congress?
Joseph Barbuto, chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, told the Times his social media feeds have been filled with posts from Democrats who’ve received the instructions from the Cheney campaign.
“Even if every Democrat in the state switched over,” Barbuto said, “I don’t think it’d be enough to help her.”
He said that while Democrats in the state are grateful for Cheney’s service on the Jan. 6 committee, “she still has a voting record that was, 97 percent of the time, with Donald Trump while he was in office.”
Republicans in the state turned against Cheney following her vote to impeach Trump. And her vendetta against him ever since has alienated them even more.
The Casper Star-Tribune reported on two recent polls that each surveyed approximately 400 Wyoming Republican voters.
The first, conducted between May 24 and May 26, asked participants whom they would vote for if the election were held that day. Fifty-six percent gave their support to Hageman, 26 percent to Cheney, 12 percent to state Sen. Anthony Bouchard and 6 percent were undecided.
The second was conducted between June 1 and June 2. Hageman again received 56 percent; Cheney, 28 percent; Bouchard, 8 percent; and 7 percent were undecided. The margin of error for each poll was approximately 5 percent.
Moreover, these surveys were taken ahead of Cheney’s participation in the sham Jan. 6 hearings and before her vote for gun control legislation, neither of which will endear her to Republicans in Wyoming.
Whatever Liz Cheney is doing with our only House seat, she certainly isn’t using it to represent the views and values of the people of Wyoming. The lawful possession of firearms for hunting and self-defense is an integral part of our DNA in this state. Read my full statement: pic.twitter.com/2RRO1LxJqN
— Harriet Hageman – Text WYOMING to 90103 (@HagemanforWY) June 24, 2022
Although we should never say never, it would take a miracle for Cheney to hold onto her seat.
Simply put, Republicans will not vote for someone they do not trust.
