The Cheney magic vanishes in Wyoming
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/21/opinions/cheney-magic-vanishes-opinion-column-galant/index.html
The Cheney name has long been golden in Wyoming. Dick Cheney was elected six times to the state’s only seat in the House, where he joined the Republican Party’s leadership before becoming defense secretary and eventually vice president. And it was only two years ago that his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, won
68% of the vote as she cruised to victory for the third time.
But in Tuesday’s Republican primary, the ardent critic of former President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede that he lost in 2020 suffered a crushing defeat of her own.
The Trump-endorsed candidate in the race, Harriet Hageman, won 66% of the primary vote, compared to Cheney’s 28.9%. The margin of defeat “appears to be the second worst for a House incumbent in the last 60 years, when you look at races featuring only one incumbent,”
wrote CNN’s Harry Enten. Could there be any stronger indication that the party’s voter base is fiercely loyal to Trump?
“Liz Cheney made it clear in her barn burner of a concession speech that
she is not planning to ride off quietly into the sunset,” observed
Arick Wierson and
Bradley Honan. “Rather, she plans to ‘do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office, and I mean it.’” A Cheney run for the GOP nomination in 2024, though, “would likely be nothing more than a constant irritant” to Trump supporters, Wierson and Honan argued.
“Cheney’s smartest move would be to join the Biden administration in a bespoke senior-level role where her mandate is clear: coordinate the fight for free and fair elections and wage all-out war against the anti-American and undemocratic forces that Trumpism has unleashed. Cheney is the ideal crusader in this fight.”
Rich Lowry, writing for Politico, observed that it “was an admirable loss. It is rare that any elected official is willing to sacrifice his or her office over a matter of deeply felt principle. Cheney did it unhesitatingly.
She will be remembered fondly by history, and better than other members of her party who have repeated or tolerated lies merely to maintain or gain political power.” But he argued that a Cheney campaign for president in 2024 would fail and could even help Trump’s prospects.
In the Washington Post,
Jennifer Rubin took a different tack on the 2024 question, suggesting Cheney could achieve her goal if she is able to “turn a partisan primary into a national crusade enlisting Republicans, Democrats and independents against Trump.
It will take a unique primary strategy unlike anything we’ve seen to remove a unique threat to our democracy.”
Marc A. Thiessen, also in the Post, wrote that the reason for Cheney’s defeat was clear: “Cheney believes that Trump is the greatest threat facing our country today, greater than the serial disasters President Biden has unleashed since taking office — among them, the worst inflation in 40 years…” He added, “The vast majority of Republicans disagree.”
“The way to persuade GOP voters to move beyond Trump is not to attack him
but to convince them that he is the candidate most likely to lose in 2024. Republican voters’ top priority is to defeat Joe Biden. And that means no one wants to join Liz Cheney on her suicide run.”
