U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney on Thursday officially filed the necessary paperwork with the secretary of state’s office declaring her intention to seek re-election to the U.S. House.
Cheney made her filing public in a video she posted on YouTube Thursday afternoon.
With patriotic music playing loudly in the background and a display of various scenes from Wyoming and of herself, the video reinforced her references to the “Code of the West.”
“If we set aside our founding principles for the politics of the moment, the miracle of our constitutional republic will slip away,” she said in the video. “We must not let that happen.”
In the video, Cheney referenced her sense of moral responsibility, saying she won’t “surrender to pressure or intimidation,” referencing “The Code of the West.”
According to a spokesman for Cheney, the video was recorded in Cheyenne and produced by a Casper-based video production company.
Last year, Cheney spoke out against former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and voted for his impeachment on allegations he helped instigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks.
In the video, Cheney asked the viewers “to reject the lies, to rise above the toxic politics, to defend our freedom, to do what we all know is right.”
“In Wyoming, we know what it means to ride for the brand,” she said. “Our brand is the United States Constitution.”
Cheney also mentioned her family’s long history in Wyoming, dating back to 1852. Her grandmother Edna Cheney was the first woman to serve as deputy sheriff in Natrona County.
“I am proud and grateful beyond measure to my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and all the men and women of courage and grit who came West seeking freedom and who have built and have served our great state,” she said. “Serving as Wyoming’s congresswoman is the highest honor in my professional life.
Cheney moved to Jackson from Virginia in 2012 and challenged the late U.S. Sen Mike Enzi in his re-election bid.
Cheney said there is still much work to be done in Congress and asked voters to look to the future when casting their votes in the Aug. 16 primary.
“Some things have to matter,” she said. “American freedom, the rule of law, our founding principles, the foundations of our Republic matter. What we do in this election in Wyoming matters.”
Cheney’s announcement comes just hours after her leading opponent, Harriet Hageman, filed her intentions to run. Both candidates waited until less than 48 hours remained in the filing period to finalize their intentions.
The delay in Cheney’s official filing should not be seen as too significant, according to former Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal.
“In U.S. House and Senate races it’s not uncommon to wait and see who files,” Freudenthal told Cowboy State Daily.
Hageman has been endorsed by Trump and will join him for a rally in Casper on Saturday.
Shortly after Cheney’s announcement, Hageman released from a poll commissioned by her campaign which shows 62% the 346 Wyoming voters questioned have a very unfavorable opinion of Cheney.
The survey, with a margin of error of 5.26%, also showed that 76% of Republicans questioned have a very unfavorable opinion of Cheney.
The survey conducted through phone calls and the internet was spearheaded by Brock McCleary of Cygnal, a pollster who previously worked on the 2020 Trump reelection campaign.
