The Wyoming Republican Party made good on their promise and yesterday voted to censure Rep. Liz Cheney for her January vote to impeach former president Donald Trump. Only eight of the 74 committee members voted against the measure, with the committee further calling on Cheney to resign immediately and repay donations the state GOP had made to her 2020 reelection campaign.
Due to its relatively small population, Wyoming only has one representative in the U.S. Congress, thus giving that person outsized impact in Washington. Roughly 70% of Wyomingites voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, and a great number of those voters voiced their concerns about voting irregularities in the most recent presidential election.
Rep. Cheney ignored both the concerns of her constituents and those of her state GOP committee to align with Democrats on the January 13th vote to impeach Trump. The day before the vote, Cheney released a statement to the media, claiming:“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”
She did not provide proof of her claim.
The Wyoming GOP noted the political fallout of her vote in their resolution:
“The consequence of Cheney’s actions has resulted in numerous Republicans in Wyoming, and across the United States, indicating they will either no longer actively participate in the Republican Party, are stepping down from Precinct Representative positions within the party, or have already changed their voter registration and left the party entirely.”
As reported by The Washington Examiner, Cheney feels no remorse over her vote:
The GOP lawmaker responded to the censure in a statement to the Washington Examiner, saying that her “vote to impeach” the president was “compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution. Wyoming citizens know that this oath does not bend or yield to politics or partisanship.”
“I will always fight for Wyoming values and stand up for our Western way of life. We have great challenges ahead of us as we move forward and combat the disastrous policies of the Biden administration,” she said. “I look forward to continuing to work with officials and citizens across Wyoming to be the most effective voice and advocate in defense of our families, industries and communities.”
Last Wednesday, Cheney survived a vote by the House Republican Conference calling for her to be removed from her leadership position. Sixty-one of her colleagues voted for her to step down, but the remaining 145 Republicans voted to keep her in place.
Perhaps emboldened by this vote, and apparently unfazed by the clear message being sent to her by her state party, Rep. Cheney appeared on Fox News Sunday today to double-down on her anti-Trump rhetoric, telling host Chris Wallace that Trump “does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward…” and “we should not be embracing the former president.”
Rep. Cheney did not offer suggestions on whom Republicans and conservatives should be embracing for leadership.
Teri Christoph is editor of Fierce, a weekly newsletter about conservative women and politics.
