Liz Cheney Won’t Win Republican Nomination If She Runs for President: Romney

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on March 30, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) would not win the GOP nomination for president if she decides to run in 2024, according to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

“She would not become the nominee if she were to run. I can’t imagine that would occur,” Romney told Deseret News.

Cheney said this week that she’s considering running for president, but has not decided yet.

“That’s a decision that I’m going to make in the coming months,” she said.

Cheney was speaking hours after she was defeated in the Republican nomination for Wyoming’s at-large seat representing the state in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lawyer Harriet Hageman trumped Cheney.

Cheney has become one of the most vocal voices in the Republican Party against former President Donald Trump. She was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. She is one of two Republicans on the Democrat-dominated House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. And she has said she'll work to try to make sure Trump is not elected in 2024.

Trump endorsed Hageman, and said Cheney’s loss should send her into “political oblivion.” Trump has hinted he will run for a third time in 2024, though no candidates have formally declared.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks to supporters at an election night event during the Wyoming primary election at Mead Ranch in Jackson, Wyo., on Aug. 16, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

2024

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Deseret News that he is not collaborating with Cheney at all with regards to the potential 2024 bid and doesn’t foresee anybody “outside the Trump circle” having a realistic chance of earning the Republican nomination in two years.

“If he doesn’t run again, I think it’ll be people who either were supporters of his or people who didn’t say much about him and then would be open to become the nominee,” Romney said.

“My party has changed a great deal over the last decade. It will change again over the next 10 years. I can’t tell you how, but I think we’ll have more voices than one at some point. But right now one voice, and that’s President Trump’s voice, is the loudest and the strongest, and bucking him is something people will do at their peril.”

The GOP is squarely behind Trump and going against him was courageous, Romney also said. Cheney “did what she thought was right,” he said, adding, “I believe she was right.”

Cheney has also drawn praise from many Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) recently said she has shown “character, courage, and dedication to country.” And Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said Cheney’s defeat “is a low mark for the Republican Party and the people of Wyoming.” But many Republicans have criticized her.

Cheney “has a mental illness called Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on Twitter. “Just like the rest of the globalists who are obsessed with power and money and don’t give a [expletive] about America or the good hard working American people.”