Politics

Liz Cheney Is Favored To Win Wyoming House Primary

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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As voters head to the polls Tuesday, Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, seems favored to win a crowded Republican primary for Wyoming’s sole seat in the House of Representatives.

Cheney is running in the GOP primary for the same seat her father once held. The current occupant, Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis, is retiring. The state is reliably Republican — a Democrat hasn’t represented the state in Congress since 1976.

A Casper Star-Tribune and Wyoming PBS poll released last month showed Cheney at 21 percent, Tim Stubson,at 8.7 percent, Leland Christensen at 4.1 percent and Darin Smith with 2.5 percent. But 52 percent of Republicans polled said they were undecided.

The Associated Press reported that Cheney has raised more money than her competitors, and, with about $540,000 in the bank, has more than her top three rivals combined.

Donors include her father, former President George W. Bush, Bush aide Karl Rove and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

She also boasts of support from former Wyoming Sen. Al Simpson and the Casper Star Tribune, the state’s widest circulated newspaper.

Cheney, a former Fox News contributor, also has been backed by conservative radio talkers, including Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt.

One national conservative, however, is going out of his way to campaign against her. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and the Cheneys have sparred in the past over foreign policy. On Sunday, he announced his support for Christensen, a Republican state senator, over Cheney in the race.

This year’s campaign has gone better than her first attempt: in 2014, she briefly challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi in the state’s GOP primary but dropped out before the election.

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