Liz Cheney’s re-election campaign has launched a new ad contrasting her rejection of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election with the stances taken by her primary opponents.
Ms Cheney, who was ousted from the House Republican leadership last year, is campaigning to remain as the lone Wyoming representative in the House, but she’s facing stiff competition from candidates who haven’t rejected former President Donald Trump.
The ad begins with trial lawyer Harriet Hageman, who has been endorsed by Mr Trump. In the congressional debate in Sheridan, Wyoming on 30 June, she said: “We have serious questions about the 2020 election.”
As other candidates share their doubts about the voting process, the ad finishes with Ms Cheney saying, “we’ve got to elect serious leaders. We have to elect leaders who will take their oath of office seriously. Leaders who won’t simply say what they think people want to hear”.
Ms Cheney is one of two Republicans who serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6 2021.
Ms Hageman went after Ms Cheney and the committee during the Wyoming Congressional debate last month, saying that “they’re not focusing on the issues that are important to the people in Wyoming”.
Ms Cheney urged Ms Hageman to say that the 2020 election had not been stolen from Mr Trump. Ms Hageman hedged and didn’t respond directly to Ms Cheney, who said the lawyer was “completely beholden” to the former president.
Two other candidates, State Senator Anthony Bouchard and Robyn Belinsky, a businesswoman, are also shown in the ad spreading doubt about the electoral process.
Since last month, the Cheney campaign has run five ads, and the Hageman campaign, along with associated organisations, such as the Club for Growth Action, has released six, according to AdImpact, a company that tracks ads. The Cheney campaign has spent the most money since last month – $1.8m.
Ms Cheney has raised $13m during this cycle, the top fundraiser in the race. Ms Hageman has gathered $3.8m.
The Wyoming Values Political Action Committee, which supports Ms Hageman, has spent half a million dollars in the last three weeks of the race. The ad buy highlights Ms Cheney’s vote in support of the bipartisan gun control bill to make her out to be close to the Democrats.
On Tuesday, Ms Hageman put out an ad showcasing her work as an attorney representing a farmer being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tim Murtaugh, an adviser to Ms Hageman and a former spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said that “Wyoming is fed up with Liz Cheney and no amount of television ads funded by Democrats from California will ever change that”, according to CBS News.
Ms Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, entered the house in January 2017.
She’s trailing Ms Hageman in the polls, with a recent survey in the Casper Star-Tribune having her 22 points behind.
Republican activists in her state have rejected her and the GOP central committee in the state voted in November of last year to stop recognizing her as a Republican.
Other Republicans in Congress have also voiced their support for Ms Hageman, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying on Tuesday that he’ll hold his own event in the state on primary day 16 August.
The Cheney campaign sent out a message in the mail to all voters last month about how to register as a Republican – aimed at Democrats and Independents in the state who could vote for her in the GOP primary.
According to figures from the office of the Wyoming Secretary of State, as of 1 July, there were 78,210 registered Democrats and Independents in the state, but more than 71 per cent of the state’s voters are registered as Republicans.
“How do I change my party affiliation to register as a Republican so I can vote for Liz?” the message said.
In a statement in June, Ms Cheney said that “I’ve been a conservative Republican since I first voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984”.
“I encourage everyone with principles who loves our country to exercise their right to vote. And, damn right, I will continue to give every voter in Wyoming a list of all the key rules for casting ballots in our state. If any eligible voter living in Wyoming wishes to become a Republican, they are free to do so. That is their right”, she added.
In the 2020 election in Wyoming, Mr Trump got 7,827 more votes than Ms Cheney, but both won in the state with almost 70 per cent of the vote.
The two combatants could face off in a Republican presidential primary in 2024, with Mr Trump blasting the January 6 committee on Tuesday during a speech in Washington, DC.
“They want to damage me so I cannot go back to work for you. And I don’t think that’s going to happen”, he said.
Ms Cheney told CNN on Sunday that she would decide on whether to run in 2024 “down the road”.
