With about 38 percent of the vote tallied, Hageman had more than 62 percent to Cheney’s 33 percent, according to the Associated Press, which projected Hageman’s win. Hageman headed into the day as the clear favorite and close observers had anticipated her victory for weeks.
The 45th president also loomed large Tuesday in two high-profile races in Alaska: Moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) faced a Trump-backed challenger, Kelly Tshibaka, while former governor Sarah Palin — an anti-establishment Republican backed by Trump — vied for Alaska’s lone seat in the House.
But Cheney’s singular focus on denouncing the former president made her an especially high-profile target. House Republicans ousted Cheney from their No. 3 leadership position last year after she refused to stop criticizing Trump, and she took a prominent role on the congressional committee investigating a pro-Trump mob’s storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the conduct of Trump and his aides on that day and leading up to it.
Campaigning in a state that Trump won by more than 40 points, Cheney used her last ads to take aim at the former president’s “poisonous” false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, stoking speculation that she might run for president just to continue condemning Trump on a national stage.
Waiting in line to vote Tuesday — with her father, former vice president Dick Cheney, at her side — the congresswoman told reporters she hoped to build her campaign into a national movement across party lines to defeat Trump’s influence. “Today, no matter what the outcome is, is certainly the beginning of the battle that is going to continue,” she said outside a library in Teton County, a liberal-leaning outlier.
Tuesday night, after calling Hageman to concede, Cheney told a crowd that she “will do whatever it takes to ensure Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office.” She warned that the survival of American democracy is “not guaranteed” and that those who deny the legitimacy of fair elections — including her opponent — could derail future votes.
“Our nation is barreling once again towards crisis, lawlessness and violence,” she said. “No American should support election deniers for any position of genuine responsibility.”
“I’m a conservative Republican,” she said. “I believe deeply in the principles and the ideals on which my party was founded. … But I love my country more.”
Cheney is the fourth House Republican to lose a primary after voting to impeach Trump last year, on charges that he incited a riot. The others are Reps. Tom Rice of South Carolina, Peter Meijer of Michigan and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.) advanced to the general election this month as a slew of challengers split the GOP vote in an all-party primary, while Rep. David G. Valadao prevailed in another all-party primary in a blue-leaning California district where Trump declined to endorse an opponent. Four others who voted to impeach have declined to seek reelection.
While others in the GOP have sought distance from Trump and competed for influence, few have…
Read More: Liz Cheney loses Wyoming primary while vowing effort to keep Trump from White House
