Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) lost her primary election — and it was not even close.
But just because the voters of Wyoming rejected her, that does not necessarily mean she’s ready to be done with politics.
Cheney appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” Wednesday morning and was asked by host Savannah Guthrie, “Are you considering running for president yourself?”
“Well, what I’m going to do, Savannah, is spend the next several months completing my work in Congress, obviously completing my work representing the people of Wyoming. We have a tremendous amount of work left to do on the Jan. 6 committee,” Cheney responded.
She continued, “And also though, I’m going to be making sure that people all around this country understand the stakes of what we’re facing, understand the extent to which we’ve now got one major political party — my party — which has really become a cult of personality.”
When Guthrie pressed Cheney on the 2024 question, she said, “That’s a decision that I’m going to make in the coming months, Savannah. I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning. But it is something that I’m thinking about.”
Watch the video below:
Liz Cheney fresh off her landslide defeat confirmed on NBC "Today" show that a 2024 run is something she is "thinking about" and will make decision "in the coming months" as she plots to do "whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office" pic.twitter.com/vwXnLTqyT4
— Mona Salama (@MonaSalama_) August 17, 2022
On Tuesday, Cheney lost to primary challenger Harriet Hageman by nearly 40 points.
After voting to impeach former President Donald Trump, the Wyoming Congresswoman has become an outspoken critic of him.
While polls showed Cheney was set to lose her primary, there has been speculation that she might use her national profile to run for president in 2024.
With the caveat that there is still probably at least half a year left until any 2024 candidates start announcing their campaigns, and there is still time for the political landscape to shift, it’s hard to see a world where Cheney is successful in a Republican presidential primary.
Perhaps if Cheney had voted to impeach Trump and then continued to vote in line with her conservative record without becoming such a vocal critic, she could have recovered her standing among conservatives.
But while the Congresswoman continued to vote conservatively, she chose to repeatedly speak out against the former president, his unfounded claims of election fraud, and members of her party who are “enabling his lies.” She chose to become one of the faces of the opposition to Trump.
While some conservatives may see her actions as posturing to secure a contributorship on CNN, there is something noble about likely setting your political career on fire and speaking out on your convictions even if they’re not popular and cost you your reelection.
But unfortunately for Cheney, her message about Trump and the Republican Party as she sees it today is not going to win over presidential primary voters.
Even if she tried to run with a more conservative agenda than Trump, it probably won’t be enough to make up for her decision to so publicly oppose the former president. There’s also no way she’d get even close to winning the Democratic nomination, and right now a third-party bid seems unlikely to succeed.
So as the political world stands today, a Cheney 2024 bid probably would not go very far.
