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Liz Cheney says she’ll vote for Kamala Harris in the election

Vaseline September 5, 2024

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, said Wednesday she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the November election, arguing that former President Donald Trump poses a unique threat to the nation.

“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I’ve thought deeply about this,” Cheney said in a speech at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only will I not vote for Donald Trump, I will vote for Kamala Harris.”

The endorsement marks a major political leap forward for Cheney, a Republican congressman from 2017 to 2023, whose father Dick Cheney was vice president to former President George W. Bush.

“I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing down candidates’ names, especially in swing states,” Cheney said of her decision.

More: More than 200 Bush, McCain, Romney alumni support Harris for president, but criticize Trump

Cheney, a fierce critic of Trump since leaving office, co-chaired the House committee investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cheney voted for Trump over President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, a decision she later said she regretted.

After becoming a frequent target of attacks from the former president, Cheney lost the 2022 Republican primary for her Wyoming congressional seat by more than 32 percentage points to a Trump-backed opponent, Harriet Hageman, who currently represents Wyoming in the House of Representatives.

House Republicans had already voted to remove Cheney from his leadership role as conference chair in 2021. And that same year, the Wyoming Republican Party passed a resolution derecognizing Cheney as a member.

Cheney’s endorsement of Harris comes a week after 238 Republicans who previously worked for Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, endorsed Harris in an open letter.

Harris’ campaign has sought to emphasize the support of anti-Trump Republicans by launching the group Republicans for Harris and by having GOP speakers appear at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month.

Republicans who addressed the convention included former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who served on the House committee as Cheney did on Jan. 6; former Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham; former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan; Mesa, Ariz. Mayor John Giles; and Olivia Troye, who served as homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence.

Contact Joey Garrison at X @joeygarrison.