Wyoming GOP votes to stop recognizing Cheney as member
CASPER, Wyo. (NewsNation Now) — The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump.
The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyoming, by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.
“That vote this past weekend, that was just showmanship, it is completely irrelevant,” Dr. Joe McGinley, a state committeeman and former chair of the Natrona County, Wyoming, Republican Party, said on “Dan Abrams Live.” “The party is losing relevance here in the state, the leadership and the party, and votes like this are why. They’re really pushing away the true conservatives, the true Republican voters who don’t want them to speak on their behalf.”
In February, the Wyoming GOP central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney, Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative, for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney has described her vote to impeach Trump as an act of conscience in defense of the Constitution. Trump “incited the mob” and “lit the flame” of that day’s events, Cheney said after the attack.
It’s “laughable” for anybody to suggest Cheney isn’t a “conservative Republican,” Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler said by text message Monday.
Conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America scores each member of Congress by how conservative they are, measuring how members vote and what bills they sponsor. The group gave Cheney a 96% for the current congressional session, the average House Republican scores a 93%.
“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” Adler added.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Cheney voted with Trump nearly 93% of the time while he was in office. Meanwhile, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in House Republican leadership, voted with Trump less than 78% of the time.
“You don’t get more conservative than representative Cheney,” McGinley said.
Cheney is now facing at least four Republican opponents in the 2022 primary including Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, whom Trump has endorsed. Hageman in a statement called the latest state GOP central committee vote “fitting,” the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
“Liz Cheney stopped recognizing what Wyomingites care about a long time ago. When she launched her war against President Trump, she completely broke with where we are as a state,” Hageman said.
“Representative Cheney has an excellent chance here in Wyoming,” McGinley said.
In May, Republicans in Washington, D.C., removed Cheney from a top congressional GOP leadership position after she continued to criticize Trump’s false claims that voter fraud cost him re-election.
Cheney had survived an earlier attempt to remove her as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, a role that shapes GOP messaging in the chamber.
“We’re starting to see fatigue on this matter,” McGinley said. “Even individuals that don’t agree with Rep. Cheney, they’re starting to get tired of the argument.”
“Dan Abrams Live” reached out to the Republican Party of Wyoming and members of the Wyoming GOP who voted to rebuke Cheney, we either got silence or responses like this:
“I’m sorry, but I do not sign up to be the fodder for liberal media hacks! Mr. Abrams will have to find his patsy somewhere else….
Carbon County GOP Chairman Joey Correnti IV