Liz Cheney Trailing Behind Trump-Backed Harriet Hageman in US House Race: Poll

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) delivers a closing statement during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach, in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is trailing significantly behind Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman in the race for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat in August, according to a recent poll in the Casper Star-Tribune.

Former Republican National Committee member Hageman is leading the way with 52 percent of the public support according to the poll, while three-term incumbent Cheney’s support is at 30 percent.

The results come less than a month before the Aug. 16 primary for the Wyoming House GOP primary is set to begin.

The survey questioned 1,100 registered Wyoming voters likely to participate in the primary, with a margin of error of 3 percent.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw an incumbent down 22 points in a House Race unless it was somebody who had been indicted or convicted of a crime,” Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, the firm that conducted the poll, told ktvq.

Cheney is facing a tough election in the bid for the House seat following her decision to serve as vice-chair on the Democrat-controlled House subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S.Capitol.

She has also previously been vocal in her criticism of former President Donald Trump, and voted to impeach him in his second trial. That move prompted the Wyoming Republican Party last year to vote to censure her before deciding to stop recognizing her as a member.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of the GOP leadership in the Senate, told Fox News earlier this month that Cheney’s actions would likely spell problems for her in her home state.

Problems at Home

“Wyoming politics is very personal, it’s face-to-face, it’s town-to-town,” Barrasso told the publication. “The travel that I have done around the state, I think she has a lot of work to do if she hopes to win the primary.”

Trump himself has said he believes Cheney will lose her reelection bid, pointing to Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), who lost by 28 percentage points in the GOP primary several weeks ago. Republican Rice also voted to impeach Trump.

Meanwhile, Cheney’s campaign last month began turning to the state’s Democrats for support, informing them via her campaign website on to switch parties to vote for her in the GOP primary.

However, Cheney’s allies believe her outspokenness about Trump may have put her in a stronger position for the 2024 presidential contest;  something the lawmaker has not yet ruled out.

“She knew that she was shooting herself in the foot politically (in Wyoming) and she was going to walk around with a limp for the rest of her life,” Landon Brown, a Wyoming state representative and Cheney ally, told The Associated Press. “But I could see this blossoming into something larger.”

Still, with just weeks to go until the primary, Cheney told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that ensuring the public knows “the truth about Trump” is more important to her than maintaining a seat in the House, adding that her work on the committee is the “single most important thing I’ve ever done professionally.”

The Republican lawmaker added that she will continue to “fight hard” to ensure that Trump is “never anywhere close to the Oval Office ever again.”