Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, once a rising Republican star and now a leading Republican critic of former President Trump, said she will vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
“I don't think there's any room to write in the candidate's name, especially in battleground states,” Cheney said Wednesday during a speech at Duke University in North Carolina.
She then emphasized, “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and values the Constitution, I've thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only will I not be voting for Donald Trump, I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, USA, Monday, September 2, 2024. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Minutes after the Cheney news broke, the Trump campaign posted on social media a video of an interview with Cheney on Fox News Channel four years ago in which she criticized Harris.
“Her voting record in the Senate is to the left of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren,” Cheney argued at the time. “It's clear that she is a radical liberal.”
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The Fox News interview took place shortly after Biden, then the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, selected Harris, then a senator, as his running mate.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was once a conservative star in the Republican Party and rose through the ranks of House GOP leadership.
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But she was the most visible of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump in early 2021. The impeachment was on charges of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which was carried out by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who sought to disrupt Congress' certification of Biden's Electoral College win in the 2020 election.
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney attends a speaking event in New York City on June 26, 2023. (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
A conservative lawmaker and defense hawk, she immediately came under fierce attack from President Trump and his allies and was ultimately ousted from her position as the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership.
Cheney, who has been a vocal advocate of protecting the nation's democratic process and putting country over party, was one of only two Republicans to serve on the special committee organized by House Democrats to investigate the Capitol riots.
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In 2022, she lost Wyoming's Republican primary for Congress to a candidate backed by Trump.
Cheney, who has claimed former President Trump is a “liar,” a “con man” and a potential “tyrant” who would “burn down the Constitution” if re-elected, vowed to “do everything in my power to make sure he never comes near the Oval Office again” after leaving Congress.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks during a rally at First Summit Arena at the Cambria County War Memorial, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)
But Cheney has so far remained silent despite outreach from the Biden campaign, which switched to Harris in July when the vice president became the top 2024 Democratic candidate.
Cheney decided not to join other prominent anti-Trump Republicans, including former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who spoke in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention last month.
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