Cheney preparing for ‘challenging’ primary battle

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a new interview that while she is preparing for a “challenging” primary race for her congressional seat, she is “confident” she will come out victorious. 

Cheney told Punchbowl News that “whatever that primary looks like, whoever I’m going to be up against, I’m gonna fight hard and I’m not gonna take it for granted, but I anticipate that I’ll prevail.” 

“I’m confident I’m gonna win,” the House Republican Conference chairwoman added. “It’s gonna be, certainly, a challenging primary. I’m preparing for that right now.” 

Cheney, who has attracted the ire of former President Trump and his supporters for joining nine other House Republicans in voting to impeach him for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol mob attack, currently faces four GOP challengers in her 2022 midterm election. 

The candidates vying to oust Cheney include Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard (R) and state Rep. Chuck Gray (R). 

The former president has committed himself to backing any primary challenge to Cheney, further fueling Republican infighting over Cheney’s impeachment vote, though Trump was later acquitted by the Senate. 

However, Cheney told Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman that she is looking forward to the primary battle. 

“But I also think there are some pretty big constitutional issues at stake, and I think those are really important,” Cheney said. “So, anybody who wants to get in that race and who wants to do it on the basis of debating me about whether or not President Trump should have been impeached, I’ll have that debate every day of the week.”

After Sherman told Cheney that she might actually “be having that every day of the week,” the GOP congresswoman responded: “I think it really, really matters that we not go down the path of every election cycle, you know, something like what happened can happen again.”

Cheney has found herself in renewed clashes with Trump this week after the No. 3 House Republican said Monday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are the leaders of the Republican Party. 

Her remarks, an apparent pushback over Trump’s efforts to maintain control over the GOP, prompted the former president to release a statement in which he claimed Cheney was trying to “save face.” 

“Liz Cheney is polling sooo low in Wyoming, and has sooo little support, even from the Wyoming Republican Party, that she is looking for a way out of her Congressional race,” Trump argued. “She’ll either be yet another lobbyist or maybe embarrass her family by running for President, in order to save face.”

Cheney struck down Trump’s speculation in a call with Wyoming reporters Wednesday, calling the former president’s claims that she won’t seek reelection “wishful thinking.” 

“I am absolutely dedicated and committed to winning my primary and earning the votes of the people of Wyoming,” Cheney said, according to The Associated Press.