Rep. Liz Cheney conceded to her Trump-backed primary opponent Harriet Hageman in the race for the GOP nomination for Wyoming’s at-large House seat, expressing no regrets about her decision to speak out against the former president and hinting at a potential 2024 bid during a speech in Jackson on Tuesday evening.
The Wyoming Republican, who has become arguably the face of the anti-Trump movement, said that despite losing the race, “the real work begins” now as she plans to continue her fight to keep Trump out of office in 2024 and rebuke unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
CHENEY LOSES TO TRUMP-BACKED HAGEMAN IN WYOMING GOP HOUSE PRIMARY
“Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic — that was a path I could not and would not take,” she told the crowd.
“No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect, and I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty. Our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections, and tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary. She won, I called her to concede the race. This primary election is over, but now, the real work begins.”
Cheney took a swing at Hageman for her rhetoric surrounding the last presidential election, calling for candidates around the country to acknowledge that the results were legitimate and arguing that continuing to deny the outcome could hinder democracy and lead to additional instances of political violence like that seen on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of the election results.
“Today, as we meet here, there are Republican candidates for governor who deny the outcome of the 2020 election, and who may refuse to certify future elections if they oppose the results. We have candidates for secretary of state who may refuse to report the actual results of the popular vote in future elections, and we have candidates for Congress, including here in Wyoming, who refuse to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and suggest that states decertify their results,” she continued.
“Our nation is barreling once again towards crisis, lawlessness, and violence. No American should support election deniers for any position of genuine responsibility where their refusal to follow the rule of law will corrupt our future,” Cheney said.
Despite coming under fire from many within her party, with her GOP colleagues voting to remove her from her position as the No. 3 Republican in the House and having been censured by the Republican National Committee for her decision to join the Jan. 6 select committee, the political scion has made clear that she stands by her position and has no intentions of backing down.
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The Wyoming Republican — who has not ruled out a 2024 presidential run, possibly teeing her up for a battle against Trump — hinted at a possible bid, invoking President Abraham Lincoln in her remarks by noting he lost races before ultimately being elected to the White House.
“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all. Lincoln ultimately prevailed. He saved our union, and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history,” she said.
“Speaking at Gettysburg of the great task remaining before us, Lincoln said that ‘we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and the government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from this Earth.’ As we meet here tonight, that remains our greatest and most important task.”
