Liz Cheney Will She Run for the Presidency?: Former Wyoming Congresswoman At-Large Liz Cheney had once been among the most powerful Republicans in the United States House of Representatives.
She was the chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the third-ranking GOP official in the governing body and the highest-ranking Republican woman in its history.
That was before the 2020 presidential election.
Cheney was just one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for citing the mob that led to the January 6, 2021, capital insurrection. The Wyoming GOP responded by censuring her, while she was later ousted as conference chair after her repeated criticism of the former president.
Liz Cheney Hates Donald Trump
Cheney has remained defiant, however, and told reporters she would do everything she could to make sure Trump could never get anywhere near the Oval Office again.
“We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language,” Cheney told reporters. “We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution, and I think it’s very important that we make sure whomever we elect is somebody who will be faithful to the Constitution.”
A True Conservative Voice
Critics of Liz Cheney have labeled her a “Rino” – Republican in name only – but that would be an unfair assessment of the woman who has been long regarded as a leading ideological conservative in the Bush-Cheney-era tradition, and a representative of the GOP establishment.
Cheney has been described as a neoconservative, who has focused on national security, and support for the U.S. military.
She has long been pro-business, hawkish on foreign policy, and both fiscally and socially conservative.
Those should be seen as far from RINO attributes. Though she voted steadfastly with much of Trump’s overall agenda, she was still critical of the foreign policy of Donald Trump – which to some conservatives bordered on the failed policy of isolationism.
Cheney was quite critical of President Barak Obama, and in her first days in Congress in 2017, had co-sponsored bills to reverse the impact of “Obama-era” gun regulations, while she voted to repeal “Obamacare.” She later warned that socialism had a chokehold on the Democratic Party.
Fighter for Democracy
Last year, Liz Cheney lost the Wyoming primary and essentially became a lame duck in Congress, but as a member of the January 6 Committee, she continued to ensure that Trump couldn’t return to power. That included campaigning with Democratic candidates in the 2022 mid-term elections including Reps. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, while she worked to help defeat election denier Kari Lake in the Arizona gubernatorial race.
Can She Run and Win the White House?
The question being asked now is whether Cheney would mount a White House run.
It is highly unlikely at this point, simply because Cheney couldn’t win. Trump would never throw his support behind her, and without his base, she couldn’t win the nomination, let alone the general election. But would she do it to stop Trump?
There may have been such speculation last year that Cheney might run as an independent to whittle away enough Conservative votes to ensure Trump loses. However, Trump is already doing enough damage that he can’t be seen as a viable candidate at this point. The party wants to move on, even as Trump remains popular with a quarter of GOP voters.
Cheney would do best to sit it out and let Trump continue to dig a deeper hole, and perhaps she can make a comeback in the post-MAGA era. She will remain a strong voice for neoconservatives who want to see America strong on the world stage, as opposed to the MAGA movement that wants to close the borders and pretend the outside world doesn’t exist.
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Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
