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Trump foe Liz Cheney defeated in Wyoming

Liz Cheney, Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican adversary in the US Congress, has been defeated in a GOP primary, falling to a rival backed by the former president in a contest that reinforced his grip on the party’s base.

The third-term congresswoman from Wyoming and her allies entered the day on Tuesday downbeat about her prospects, aware that Mr Trump’s backing gave Harriet Hageman considerable lift in the state where he won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign.

Ms Cheney was already looking ahead to a political future beyond Capitol Hill that could include a 2024 presidential run, potentially putting her on another collision course with Mr Trump.

Ms Cheney described her loss as the beginning of a new chapter in her political career as she addressed a small collection of supporters, including her father, former vice president Dick Cheney, on the edge of a vast field flanked by mountains and bales of hay.

“Our work is far from over,” she said.

Six hundred kilometres to the east, festive Mr Hageman supporters gathered at a sprawling outdoor rodeo and Western culture festival in Cheyenne, many wearing cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans.

The results were a powerful reminder of the GOP’s rapid shift to the right. A party once dominated by national security-oriented, business-friendly conservatives like Dick Cheney now belongs to Mr Trump, animated by his populist appeal and, above all, his denial of defeat in the 2020 election.

Those lies, which have been roundly rejected by federal and state election officials along with Mr Trump’s own attorney-general and judges he appointed, transformed Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president to the clearest voice inside the GOP warning that he represents a threat to democratic norms.

Ms Cheney’s defeat would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The daughter of a former vice president, she hails from one of the most prominent political families in Wyoming. And in Washington, she was the No. 3 House Republican, an influential voice in GOP politics and policy with a sterling conservative voting record.

But after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Mr Trump supporters, Ms Cheney voted to impeach Mr Trump and made it her primary mission to ensure he never again serves in the Oval Office.

She pushed past GOP censures and death threats to serve as a leader on the congressional panel investigating Mr Trump’s role in the insurrection.

Ms Cheney will now be forced from Congress at the end of her third and final term in January. She is not expected to leave Capitol Hill quietly.

She will continue in her leadership role on the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack until it dissolves at the end of the year.

And she is actively considering a 2024 White House bid – as a Republican or independent – having vowed to do everything in her power to fight Mr Trump’s influence in her party.

-AAP

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