Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Monday she is exploring a third-party 2024 presidential bid after dramatically losing Wyoming’s congressional seat in the 2022 GOP primary by about 40 points before settling for a professorship at the University of Virginia.
If Cheney decides to run, she said the calculation would include how to spoil former President Donald Trump’s path to reelection. She said that plan could entail joining a bipartisan ticket.
“I think that the situation that we’re in is so grave, and the politics of the moment require independents and Republicans and Democrats coming together in a way that can help form a new coalition, so that may well be a third-party option,” she told USA Today.
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Cheney said if a third-party ticket would benefit Trump, she would not mount a third-party ballot. A third-party ticket featuring Cheney could hurt Biden more than Trump, considering Cheney’s history of allying with Democrats:
- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton donors funded Cheney in the 2022 GOP primary.
- Cheney accepted a post from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the January 6 Commission.
- Liz Cheney’s net worth ballooned as much as 600 percent during her time in office.
“I certainly hope to play a role in helping to ensure that the country has … a new, fully conservative party,” she told the paper. “And so whether that means restoring the current Republican Party, which … looks like a very difficult if not impossible task, or setting up a new party, I do hope to be involved and engaged in that.”
Cheney also noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could not be trusted to certify the 2024 presidential election, though she provided no evidence to support her claim.
WATCH — Liz Cheney: Speaker Johnson Is “Dangerous;” He Attempted to “Undermine Our Republic”
“It’s not a position that I’ve arrived at lightly,” she said. “The president who’s willing to ignore the rulings of the courts, the president who’s willing to ignore the guardrails of our democracy is an existential threat.”
Cheney has been in Washington, DC, for most of her adult life. In the spring of 2021, the Republican House Conference fired Cheney as the GOP House conference chair via a vote of no confidence. She was replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), an ardent supporter of Trump and America-first policies.
Cheney did not want to lose her powerful position in Republican House leadership. To save her title, Cheney reportedly met “off-the-record” with Fox News board member Paul Ryan to shore up rumors of her ouster. Breitbart News reported that Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of the Bulwark, “recognized the meeting as perhaps Cheney’s last gasp to remain in power.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on “X” @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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