by Giuseppe Sarcina
The primaries are among the threats facing the daughter of the former Republican vice president
FROM OUR SEND
CHEYENNE (WYOMING) – The Trumpians met outside the FBI headquarters in Cheyenne, the Wyoming capital, at noon yesterday. Tomorrow we’re going to vote for the Republican primary. It will be the defining moment for Liz Cheney, the anti-Trump, the anti-Pope of the conservative world. But the former president’s loyalists seem to be thinking of something else, the system’s maneuvers to prevent The Donald from winning in 2024. Perhaps because the Wyoming result seems obvious: Cheney has little hope of staying on as a congressman in Washington. In 2016 and then 2018 he won the preliminary round with overwhelming odds of between 65 and 70%. Polls now give her a consensus of just 28%, almost thirty points less than her rival Harriet Hageman, who is backed by Trump and about 100 congressmen.
We know that Cheney’s consensus has been in free fall for a year and a half. Along with nine other party colleagues, he voted to impeach Trump and then accepted the proposal of Nancy Pelosi: Vice President of the Commission of Inquiry into the Capitol Hill attack.
Now Wyoming, 600,000, Cheney State could turn its back on him. His father, former vice president of George W. Bush, arrived there with his parents. This is where the political rise began, retaining the seat as an MP from 1979 to 1989 and now for his daughter. Cheney, 56, grew up in Casper. How the father left here. She studied, married, had five children, made a name for herself as an indomitable, uncompromising conservative, got into a fight with her sister Marie, a declared homosexual (the family crisis returned later). Cheney has ruled the territory for at least a decade. Now forced to hide. No rally, no public event. Just TV interviews and a few intimate meetings. It has received too many threats in recent weeks. Serious and credible.
Thus, the most anticipated campaign, closely watched by national politics, slips away in a surreal atmosphere. There’s no fuss in Cheyenne. After a long tour of the streets of this city of 65,000, we counted a few signs that were planted in the gardens in front of the houses and mansions and divided between Cheney and Hageman. All others for local candidates for Secretary of State or Sheriff. Activists also seem to get involved. Last Saturday, Liz supporters organized the Defend Principles: Knock Doors for Cheney tour. The program was ambitious: by Sunday afternoon they knocked on the front doors. But on Saturday morning, a few showed up outside Cheyenne City Hall, the meeting point. And in the end, the marathon ended in a simple and short flyer.
Theoretically, this competition would have no right to exist. The programs of the two competitors are identical. Both follow to the letter the signs posted by the Republican Party at their downtown headquarters, not far from the only point of interest in Cheyenne: the old Union-Pacific train station. By Titles: Protect the Innocent (i.e. No Abortion); No to new taxes; reduce public spending; No to Marijuana Legalization; fairness in civil rights. Finally, Harriet Hageman, 58, an attorney, was one of Liz’s associates in 2014 when Dick’s daughter was trying and failing to climb the Senator seat. Now Harriet has converted to pure Trumpism. American media commentators believe Cheney will use the defeat as a platform to pitch himself domestically as an alternative to Trump. Perhaps he will run as an independent in the midterm elections. He may run for the Republican primary in 2024. Yes, but with which centuries, with which voices?
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how many Wyoming Democrats vote for her. Perhaps, as Republicans suspect, many in this round of the primary. But in the long run, Cheney’s own constituents are skeptical. Ms. Johanna Vailpondo, 60, enjoys the cool evening in the garden of her house. a fan of Liz, but she wonders: why would abortion advocates support someone like her who is 100% pro life?
August 14, 2022 (change August 14, 2022 | 23:38)
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