Even though former Republican Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney still hasn’t gone full blue politically, she’s starting to get pretty close.
On Thursday, Cheney campaigned on behalf of Democratic Party presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at the birthplace of the Republican Party in Wisconsin.
Cheney announced in September that she’s endorsing Harris’ campaign. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, followed suit a few days later, well-known for being a deeply conservative Republican during his time in politics.
Liz Cheney was similarly seen as one of the most conservative members of Congress before splitting from former President Trump in response to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Riot. She’s now one of his most vocal critics on the right.
These moves cost Cheney her leadership positions in the U.S. House and led to her landslide reelection loss in 2022 against U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, the Trump endorsee in the race.
Shortly after, Cheney endorsed a few Democratic Congress candidates going up against Trump-endorsed candidates during the midterm elections of 2022.
‘Strange Times’
When asked about Cheney campaigning for Harris, former Wyoming GOP Chairman Jack Speight remarked that these are “strange times” he could think of no comparison to during his 60 years in politics.
Trump and his campaign have ridiculed the Cheney family’s backing of Harris, calling Dick Cheney an “irrelevant RINO” and asking, "Who the f*** is Liz Cheney?"
Cheney said her endorsement for Harris is about the Constitution, which she believes Trump would threaten as president.
“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney said during an appearance at Duke University.
Prior to her split with Trump, Cheney showed no public affinity for Democrats, calling both Harris and former President Barack Obama radicals.
Speight, who supports Cheney and also plans to vote for Harris, said he knows of other like-minded Republicans in Wyoming who plan on doing the same.
For Speight, it’s about Trump’s personality more than his policies.
In fact, he supports Hageman and Wyoming U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, who are both supporting Trump’s campaign. He also was impressed by Republican Vice President-nominee and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance’s performance in the debate Tuesday and wishes he could replace Trump on the ticket.
“He did it with style and class,” Speight said. “I wish Trump could learn a thing or two from his vice president.”
Although there’s little doubt that Trump will carry Wyoming again in the election, Speight said he expects either Hageman or Barrasso to receive more votes than the former president in the November election, which he believes is telling.
“That’s sending a message, a big-time message,” he said.
Numerous phone calls made to longtime Wyoming friends and supporters of Liz Cheney were not returned.
Cabinet Aspirations?
Harris has promised to appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected president, raising speculation that could be Cheney.
When asked at the Texas Tribune festival shortly after her endorsement of Harris about this possibility, Cheney responded that she was “not focused on that.”
Her endorsement is being promoted by the Harris campaign as proof of her claims that there’s bipartisan support for her presidential campaign.
Harris gained another Republican supporter Wednesday night when former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a star witness for Cheney’s House committee that probed the Jan. 6 attack, said she will vote for Harris.
“I’m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built, from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift and a whole bunch of folks in between,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ vice president-nominee, during the VP debate Tuesday night.
Trump has played a similar card, recruiting former Democrats Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be a part of his transition team. Gabbard confirmed to Cowboy State Daily in September that both she and Kennedy have told Trump they would be interested in serving in his cabinet if he’s reelected.
What’s It For?
Wisconsin is a key battleground in the 2024 race that both Harris and Trump have frequently visited in recent weeks.
Harris made her campaign stop with Cheney on Thursday as an appeal to Republican voters like the former congresswoman who don’t like Trump asthe Republican Party’s nominee for president.
Their event is in Ripon, Wisconsin, at the Little White School House, a one-room school that according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was the site of a series of meetings that helped lead to the foundation of the Republican Party in 1854.
Harris will nod to the history and traditions of the party and make appeals to independent and Republican voters, the Sentinel reported.
Cheney has an affinity for harkening back to the early days of the GOP, often quoting former President Abraham Lincoln in her critiques of Trump. She was also born in Wisconsin before spending most of her childhood in Virginia.
Thursday’s event coincides with the launch of Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz, which released an open letter Thursday morning backing Harris “to ensure our democracy and our economy remain strong.”
The letter has two dozen signees, including three former state legislators.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
