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Kathryn Diss in Wyoming

Donald Trump backs a former critic to challenge Liz Cheney in Wyoming as his war with her heats up

Liz Cheney (left), a former Trump supporter-turned-critic is facing a primary challenge from Harriet Hageman (right), a former Trump critic-turned-supporter.  (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst / Instagram: Harriet Hageman)

Dressed in Republican red and trademark cowgirl boots, Harriet Hageman not only looks at home strutting among her Wyoming constituents, she looks like a winner. 

Framing herself as "one of them" is the defining feature of her campaign to win over the fiercely independent people of the "Wild West".

She understands them and, she claims, her opponent is out of touch.

If the polls are right, within days Ms Hageman will be the woman who topples Republican royalty and three-time incumbent Liz Cheney in the battle for their party's nomination to represent Wyoming in Congress.

Ms Hageman has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump and the polls are saying she’s the clear frontrunner in next week’s primary race.

It should have been a sleepy contest for the state's only house seat in America's conservative west.

Instead, it has become a high-profile test case of Mr Trump's power over the Republican Party.

By crossing the former US president, Ms Cheney — a staunch conservative hailing from a political dynasty spanning nearly half a century — has effectively sacrificed her political future in the party to which she's dedicated much of her career.

"There's a real tragedy that's occurring and the tragedy is that there are politicians in this country, beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to the American people. People have been betrayed," Ms Cheney said. 

"We are facing a cult of personality. I will always stand for my oath and stand for the truth."

But this fight is bigger than her.

Wyoming, known as the Cowboy State, has the smallest population and has among the lowest representation in the US government.  (ABC: Kathryn Diss)

The fight in Wyoming, which has the smallest population and among the lowest representation in the US government, represents a battle for the soul of the Republican Party. 

Foreign Correspondent hit the road in the Cowboy State to talk to voters and see how they are viewing the highly contentious race which is pitting Trump loyalists against a few dissenters.

'It's Trump country here' 

The ABC found out Ms Hageman was on the hustings at a July 4 parade in the small town of Lander, so we deviated from our road trip to see her in action.

With the election fast approaching, she was out, pressing the flesh, and had little interest in taking time away from her constituents to give attention to a foreign media crew.

"[Cheney's] not representing Wyoming. She's not here today. She doesn't represent our values. She's not really representing any of the issues that are important to people in the United States of America," Ms Hageman told the ABC at the end of the parade.

In a battle to represent Wyoming in Congress, Harriet Hageman is hoping to topple Republican royalty and three-time incumbent Liz Cheney. (ABC News: Kathryn Diss)

"Inflation, an open border, all of those things are so much more important than January 6. She's focused on things that are not important."

She walked away without answering questions about whether she thought Ms Cheney was a traitor, as she's been branded by many in her own party.

Both Ms Hageman and Ms Cheney are deeply conservative and both have family roots in the state. Their biggest difference is their allegiance to Donald Trump.

Wyoming is the most pro-Trump state in the union: 70 per cent of those who voted in 2020 backed him.

In the small farming community of Torrington, north of the capital, Cheyenne, I catch up with Wyoming state senator Cheri Steinmetz.

She's a staunch Trump supporter and is backing Ms Hageman in this contest. 

Cheri Steinmetz is a staunch Trump supporter and says she supports Harriet Hageman.  (ABC: Kathryn Diss)

"It's Trump country here. He and his policies were great for the state of Wyoming. They helped us so much," she said. 

"I absolutely think Harriet's connection with the people will bring her across the finish line strong. She's already travelled over 30,000 miles in this state, meeting with people."

Ms Steinmetz now holds the same seat that Ms Hageman's father once did.

"I think she's the best chance for the state of Wyoming … to have a voice at the national level. I think she will prevail," she said.

Ms Steinmetz wouldn't reveal when she stopped supporting Ms Hageman's opponent, however, she said, Ms Cheney fell out of favour when she sought to prosecute the case that Mr Trump was involved with the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.

"She's been just focused completely on the January 6 commission, when people here are worried about the price of food at the grocery store, the price of gas at the gas pump," she said.

From trying to stop Trump to accepting his endorsement

On the surface, Ms Hageman — a fourth-generation Wyomingite and daughter of a long-time state politician — appears to have little name recognition outside of her state's borders.

But don't be fooled. She's far more connected to the inner sanctum of the Republican Party than you might think.

In 2016, Ms Hageman was at the forefront of a campaign to block Donald Trump's nomination for president and among those to describe him as a cancer on the party.

Now she's one of his biggest fans.

"Our republic is not in danger because of Donald Trump. He was an excellent president for the United States of America and especially for the state of Wyoming," Ms Hageman said at a recent debate of candidates in the state.

Her about-face shows just how elastic allegiances can be in the era of Trumpism, where there's political mileage to be gained.

Ms Hageman's alliance with Mr Trump has earned her significant credibility and popularity among Wyoming voters, who just four years earlier rejected her nomination for governor.

She's never held elected office but she's likely to beat Ms Cheney.

How the Capitol riot turned Cheney against Trump

As Ms Hageman has been on the road singing the former president's praises, Ms Cheney has been nowhere near the voters who are weighing up her future.

She is rarely seen on the campaign hustings.

Liz Cheney was ousted from her leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference because of her repeated criticism of former president Donald Trump.  (AP: J Scott Applewhite)

For most of the race, she has been thousands of kilometres away, in Washington DC, making the case that Mr Trump should never be allowed near the White House again.

After declaring her stance on the former president, Ms Cheney started receiving death threats.

For the past year, she has reportedly had a full-time Capitol police security detail to protect her safety.

Mr Trump has waged a bitter war to unseat her since she rebuffed his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged, voted to impeach him, and labelled him a threat to American democracy.

However, what rubs salt into the wound of his faithful followers, particularly in Wyoming, is her prominent role on the congressional committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol.

While Harriet Hageman has been campaigning on the ground in Wyoming, Liz Cheney (in blue) has been in Washington overseeing the Capitol riot hearings.  (AP: The Washington Post/Jabin Botsford/Pool)

As vice-chairwoman, Ms Cheney has been cast out by her party, stripped of her leadership position and labelled a traitor.

The daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney has framed her campaign as a battle for the soul of the Republican Party: Is it beholden to Donald Trump or loyal to the US constitution?

"If the cost of standing up for the constitution is losing the House seat, then that's a price I'm willing to pay," she said in a recent visit to Wyoming.

Cheney is Republican royalty 

Ms Cheney went to primary school in Casper, Wyoming, later moving her family to Wilson, in the state's north-west. 

John and Mary Kay Turner are old-school Republicans who have run a cattle ranch in the area for decades.

John and Mary Kay Turner are old-school Republicans who have run a cattle ranch in the area for decades. (ABC News: Kathryn Diss)

"I'm dismayed. I'm disturbed about what we see going on in certain political figures, where we have these circular firing squads. We're too busy shooting each other," Mr Turner told the ABC. 

And he isn't just a curious observer: He's deeply connected to the Republican Party and to Ms Cheney's family.

Mr Turner held senior positions under both Bush administrations and worked with the former vice-president, Mr Cheney, and his daughter at the State Department.

"I've known Liz for years and years," he said. "I saw, first of all, a real focus. She did her homework and she worked hard, focused on issues and really cared about people in impoverished parts of the world," Mr Turner said.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney (right) and her father, former vice president Dick Cheney (middle), are family friends of the Turners.  (Supplied: Turner family )

His wife worries about what the future holds if Ms Cheney loses.

"It's a battle between the Trump Republican party and the Republican Party of the past, the one I've always known and always supported all my life," she said.

"It's dividing the community terribly.

"I would be sorry to see someone like Liz Cheney lose. It's more than Liz Cheney that loses. We lose a lot of Republicans like her … that care a lot about our country."

She's no fan of Donald Trump, either: "He had his time, he was defeated."

'It's a tough time here in Wyoming'

For many Wyomingites, it's a difficult dilemma.

Mark Eisele was born and raised on a ranch just outside of the capital, Cheyenne.

Rancher Mark Eisele still considers himself a Trump supporter, but plans to vote for Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary.  (ABC News: Kathryn Diss )

He still backs Mr Trump and has questions about the 2020 election result. But he is also voting for Ms Cheney.

"She's very personable and she's very, very approachable," he said. 

"She's voted right on everything that affects the state of Wyoming. She has been a supporter for us. She's been responsive to us on all these issues. And I think that's really where the rubber meets the road." 

While he doesn't agree with her investigation into the January 6 riots, Mr Eisele respects her upholding her oath to the constitution.

"Folks really support her because she's principled about it. If she really thinks something went on that was not right, it took a lot of courage to stand up and look into it," he said. 

"She might be wrong, she might be right.

"It's a tough time here in Wyoming. We will have to see where the chips fall."

Can Cheney's political opponents help her clinch victory? 

What is in sharp focus is the Democrats' embrace of a once-staunch conservative opponent.

In rare bipartisanship, Ms Cheney has become an unlikely ally of leading Democrat, Jamie Raskin, who has sat next to her through days of bruising testimony during the January 6 hearings.

"I think Liz is a constitutional patriot. She is showing people how you rise above your political party," he told the ABC during a committee recess in Washington.

"There are a lot of death threats out there and there are a lot of guns out there. Liz is hanging in tough. She's being brave … all of us are devoted to getting to the truth.

"I want to make sure that American democracy survives and that is a proposition at odds with Donald Trump ever getting anywhere near the White House."

Jamie Raskin is a Democrat and has become an unlikely ally of Liz Cheney. (ABC: Bruno Federico)

He thinks the hearings are swaying public opinion.

The ABC suggested to Mr Raskin that, in Wyoming — where this election will be decided — many people aren't watching them. 

"It's a sad thing that there is number of people in the country who are so propagandised, so indoctrinated and so brainwashed they can't even hear the truth from people in their party," Mr Raskin said.

"So, that's a question for cognitive psychologists and cult deprogrammers."

Polls are so bad for Ms Cheney that she is hoping Democrats from her local community around Wilson will register in the Republican primaries and vote for her.

It is a solemn moment for the scion of one of America's most influential Republican families and one which could end her political career, for now.

Watch Foreign Correspondent on iview.

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