Campaign

Cheney pleads with New Hampshire voters to fight GOP’s ‘plague of cowardice’

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) testifies before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol in Washington, April 4, 2022.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) made a plea to New Hampshire voters to take a stand against what she calls “cowardice” in the Republican party when they head to the polls later this month.

Cheney slammed the faction of her party that has devoted itself to former President Trump in remarks made at Dartmouth College on Friday, the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“In a little over two weeks when you in New Hamshire go to the polls the world will be watching,” Cheney, who has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, said of the upcoming first-in-the-nation primary.

She added, “Show the world that we will defeat the plague of cowardice sweeping through the Republican party.”

Cheney, once a prominent member of the GOP, split with much of her party in the aftermath of the insurrection and her subsequent vote to impeach Trump.


“As a nation, we have arrived at a point where a group of elected Republicans cannot be counted on to defend the Constitution,” she said Friday.

Since being voted out of office in 2022, the former Wyoming lawmaker has made several warnings about what she feels could happen if Trump is reelected. She doubled down on her claims Friday, arguing the former president’s actions and attempt to seize power only “threaten the very foundations of our democracy.”

Her comments come in the lead-up to the Jan. 23 New Hampshire GOP primary. Polls show Trump maintaining his leading status among Granite State voters, although rival Nikki Haley has been narrowing the gap in recent weeks.

Primary voting season for the Republican Party begins in less than two weeks, when the Iowa caucuses take place on Jan. 15.