Dogged by bad polling, controversies with Wyoming Republicans and a public feud with her sister over the legitimacy of her sister’s same-sex marriage, would-be Senator Liz Cheney has decided to drop her longshot primary challenge to Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, according to CNN.
Cheney surprised Wyoming Republicans and incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi (R) when she initially launched her bid this summer. “I thought we were friends,” Enzi reportedly told her.
Cheney’s candidacy resulted in awkward exchanges between her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and many longtime members of Wyoming’s Republican political establishment, which tends to be close knit and made up of long-serving members of Congress. Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson accused Cheney of “destroying family relationships” with her Senate bid. And Enzi himself got in a bizarre debate with Cheney’s father over whether or not they were in fact “fishing buddies.” Enzi said yes; Dick Cheney said no.
But for all the heat the race generated, polls consistently showed Enzi crushing Cheney. And the real damage appeared to come from an increasingly public and acrimonious argument with her sister over support for same sex marriages. Mary Cheney, who is out and married, publicly criticized her sister and suggested she had privately supported gay marriage before getting into the race. Mary eventually said publicly that she was not supporting her sister’s campaign.
