The Republican Party of Wyoming voted on Saturday to no longer recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a member of their party.
Cheney has been one of the most outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump. She was among the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump the second time when Democrats brought up charges of inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6.
The state party central committee voted 31-29 during a meeting in Buffalo, Wyoming, to formally censure Cheney for the second time.
A spokesperson for Cheney responded to the vote in a statement to the Associated Press.
“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” said Jeremy Adler.
He added that it was “laughable” for the state party to suggest Cheney was anything other than a “conservative Republican.”
The vote might have been at least in part a response to a scathing speech Cheney gave on Tuesday excoriating the former president and his claims about fraud in the 2020 election which he lost to President Joe Biden.
“At this moment when it matters most, we are also confronting a domestic threat that we’ve never faced before: a former president who’s attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man,” said Cheney during the speech.
She went on in the speech to rebuke the policies of Biden and the Democratic Party and enumerate the principles of conservatism as she saw them.
Cheney is facing a list of primary challengers for the at-large seat for Wyoming. Trump has endorsed Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman.
“Liz Cheney stopped recognizing what Wyomingites care about a long time ago,” Hageman claimed. “When she launched her war against President Trump, she completely broke with where we are as a state.”
Cheney responded to the endorsement with a defiant message: “Bring it.”
Here’s Cheney’s comments on Trump:
Cheney rails on Trump in this NH speech, calls on GOP to cut ties with the former president www.youtube.com