I don’t think she has a chance personally. It’s Wyoming. But it does remain to be seen if Trump’s personal endorsement will make the difference in who ends up taking her out. It sounds as though he has his choice of MAGA freaks to choose from:
If Rep. Liz Cheney loses in a GOP primary in 2022, her successor’s road to victory will likely have begun at a candidate’s forum held by a QAnon-curious Florida activist who calls himself a “massive disrupter” with “titanium balls.”
Earlier this June, six of the seven Republicans currently vying to unseat Cheney convened in a ballroom at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper, Wyoming, for their first chance to stand out since Cheney’s vote to impeach the former president in January kicked off a fervent effort among pro-Trump Wyomingites to kick her out of Congress.
K.W. Miller, the aforementioned disrupter behind the forum’s organizing group, America First PC—not to be confused with America First Action PAC—came to the podium and declared that Wyoming is “ground zero” for the effort to take back the Republican party from so-called “RINOs” and “leftists.” Gesturing to the long table where the candidates sat, Miller proclaimed, “one of these individuals is going to be your new representative.”
That very well could be the case.
The ensuing two hours made clear that Wyoming’s next representative won’t just be different from Cheney—they’ll be from an entirely different political universe.
During Miller’s forum, the six candidates onstage didn’t just castigate Cheney for calling out Trump’s unfounded claims about the election he lost, or just enthusiastically embrace those claims themselves. They bragged about being in Washington for the Jan. 6 riot. They endorsed nationwide audits of the 2020 election—including in Wyoming, which posted Trump’s largest margin of victory anywhere in the country—and they flirted with leading threads of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Wyoming’s GOP congressional hopefuls run the full gamut of experience, poise, and polish. Some are total newcomers who’ve never held or campaigned for office. Some are state lawmakers and party officials. But all are exactly the same when it comes to the most important qualification in today’s Republican Party: unswerving personal devotion to Trump.
“Trump did win, and I hope he will be reinstated by all these different audits that are going on,” said Robyn Belinskey, one candidate who appeared at the forum. “He never—what do you call it, dang it—he never conceded.”
Another candidate, Bryan Miller, said only one endorsement in the race mattered above the voters of Wyoming. “The gentleman whose name is on this hat,” he said, holding up a red MAGA cap. “He is the leader of the Republican Party.”
Every challenger is angling for Trump’s endorsement, which is expected to come in this race. The former president has railed against Cheney constantly since her vote to impeach him in January and is reportedly itching to exact revenge. The congresswoman, meanwhile, has already been booted from her post as the third-ranking House Republican over her refusal to accommodate Trump and his election conspiracies.
Public enemy No. 1 of the MAGA movement is a precarious place to be in Wyoming—a state that went for Trump by 43 points. And the truckload of Trump-loving candidates are hoping to capitalize on the backlash.
Similar dynamics are playing out in other districts and states where GOP officials broke with the ex-president. But few GOP primaries in 2022 will be more symbolically weighty than Cheney’s. And judging by the June 12 forum in Casper—the first big event of the contest—few will be as full of MAGA movement red meat and Trumpian posturing as this one.
I’m sure Matt Gaetz will be happy to travel there again to campaign for her opponent. If he isn’t on trial.