Harriet Hageman, who received Donald Trump’s endorsement this month in her bid to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, wasn’t always a fan of the former president.
The 2022 candidate was in fierce opposition to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, working with supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in a failed effort to force a vote on the convention floor between the two candidates and block Trump from the nomination. In addition, Hageman spoke out against Trump, warning that the Republican Party was nominating “somebody who is racist and xenophobic,” according to the New York Times.
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Hageman also supported Cheney in her 2016 congressional campaign. In a speech introducing Cheney, Hageman referred to Cheney as “my friend” and someone who will bring a “national spotlight” to federal overreach in the state of Wyoming, CNN reported.
“I know that Liz Cheney is a proven, courageous, constitutional conservative, someone who has the education, the background and experience to fight effectively for Wyoming on a national stage,” Hageman said in 2016. “There have been and will continue to be concerted efforts to force true conservatives to sit down and shut up. Those efforts have never worked on me and I know that they will not work on and have no effect on Liz Cheney.”
In a statement to the New York Times, Hageman said she believed “the lies the Democrats and Liz Cheney’s friends in the media were telling at the time” and realized the allegations against Trump were “untrue.” She went on to describe Trump as “the greatest president of my lifetime” and that she is proud to support him now.
Hageman received Trump’s endorsement in September. The former president won nearly 70% of Wyoming’s vote in 2016 and 2020, indicating that Hageman could have a fighting chance in 2022.
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Cheney, who attracted Trump’s ire as one of 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching him in January in connection to the Capitol riot, was ousted in May from her role as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference in response to her vocal opposition to Trump.
But the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t without high-profile allies as she seeks reelection in 2022. She received the support of a former president in George W. Bush.
Bush’s first campaign event of the 2022 midterm election cycle will be a fundraiser for Cheney and will take place in Dallas, Texas, next month. Cheney is also scheduled to keynote an event in New Hampshire on Nov. 9.
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Tags: News, Liz Cheney, Donald Trump, House of Representatives
Original Author: Asher Notheis
Original Location: Trump’s champion to unseat Liz Cheney once called him ‘racist and xenophobic’
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