Liz Cheney Loses Wyoming Primary to Trump Endorsee Harriet Hageman

John HaugheyAugust 16, 2022

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When former President Donald Trump announced in September 2021 that he was supporting Harriet Hageman in challenging Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in the Aug. 16, 2022 Republican primary for Wyoming’s lone congressional seat, the three-term incumbent defiantly shot back: “Bring it.”

Cheney fell into disfavor with the Republican party and her constituents—70 percent of whom voted for Trump in 2020—for being among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, serving as co-chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, and being among the former president’s most unrelenting antagonists.

In a May rally for Hageman, the former president implored Wyoming voters to give him the honor of saying, “Liz, you’re fired.”

According to a projection by Decision Desk HQ, Cheney has been fired by her constituents with Hageman rolling to a convincing win in the primary and to near-certain victory in November in deep red Wyoming.

With 6 percent of the votes counted at 9:53 p.m., Hageman, a natural resources attorney from Fort Laramie, garnered 60 percent of the vote, according to AP. Cheney drew 35 percent.

Hageman, raised on a ranch on the high plains of eastern Wyoming, owns a Cheyenne law firm and has a background in water rights and public lands litigation. She is senior counsel for Washington, D.C-based New Civil Liberties Alliance, focusing on litigation related to environmental regulations.

During her 11-month campaign, she emphasized her Wyoming roots, her background in natural resources policy, and Trump’s endorsement while traveling 40,000 miles in visiting all 23 of the state’s counties.

Although her campaign collected more than $15 million in contributions, three times more than Hageman garnered, Cheney’s high-profile participation in Jan. 6 proceedings during the summer kept her in Washington, D.C., and in the national spotlight, but not on the campaign