WY GOPers Consider Making Cheney’s Re-Election More Difficult After Censure

Wyoming Republicans are weighing a change to state election law that would present more obstacles for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to win re-election next year.

Cheney has drawn intraparty backlash since voting to impeach former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” earlier this year, which included the Wyoming Republican Party censuring the third-ranking House Republican for daring to buck Trump. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has also publicly clashed with Cheney over their stances on Trump’s role in the future of the GOP, and claimed last month during a press conference that she hasn’t asked him to help her if she gets primaried.

The Wyoming Senate will hold a committee vote on Thursday on legislation that would force runoff contests after a primary election if no candidate wins a majority. The legislation could potentially pit Cheney against a challenger more loyal to Trump.

Several Republican candidates have announced their plans to run against Cheney. Trump loyalists such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have trekked all the way to Wyoming to rail against the third-ranking House Republican’s re-election after Cheney’s vote to impeach the former president.

Bo Biteman, a Wyoming state senator who wrote the legislation, denied to the New York Times on Tuesday that the proposed change to the state election law was a personal attack against Cheney.

“We’re a major one-party state so whoever wins the primary is going to win the general,” Biteman told the Times. “This is just a different tactic to make more people happy with our primary system. It has nothing to do personally with Liz Cheney and the Trump supporters.”