Harriet Hageman, former adviser to Cheney, launches campaign against her
Wyoming attorney Harriet Hageman announced a challenge to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, for whom Hageman was formerly a campaign adviser, joining a crowded field of Cheney challengers for Wyoming’s at-large congressional seat.
Hageman is senior litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit conservative-libertarian law firm that takes aim at the “administrative state,” and previously ran for governor of Wyoming in 2018. She worked as a campaign adviser to Cheney for her short-lived 2014 Wyoming Senate bid and the 2016 House campaign of former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter.
“The people of Wyoming deserve leaders who reflect their views and values, but Liz Cheney betrayed us because of her personal war with President Trump, who won Wyoming by massive majorities twice,” Hageman said in a statement Thursday. “Cheney has lost the trust of the people of our state, just as she has lost any ability to be a leader for us in Washington, D.C. In contrast, I have dedicated my career to fighting for the people of Wyoming and defending our great state against the excess of government.”
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Former President Donald Trump reportedly met with Hageman in August as part of his search for a candidate to endorse and unseat one of his most high-profile and potent Republican critics, who voted in favor of impeaching him for “incitement of insurrection” after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Some Republican operatives in Wyoming searching for an ideal challenger to Cheney had long been trying to persuade Hageman to enter the race. Her supporters believe that she can lead the anti-Cheney field as a popular activist, lauding her constitutional lawyer background.
In addition to advising on Cheney’s campaigns in 2014 and 2016, Hageman donated a total of $2,000 to Cheney campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission data: $500 in 2013 and $1,500 in 2016.
In a since-deleted Facebook post on Election Day 2018, she shared a photo with Cheney and said that she was “fortunate to be able to spend some time” with the congresswoman and talk about “positive steps that have been taken in the last two years to fix Washington D.C.”
“Like many Wyomingites, I supported Liz Cheney when she ran for Congress,” Hageman said Thursday while announcing her campaign. “But then she betrayed Wyoming, she betrayed this country, and she betrayed me. Every time Wyomingites see President Biden fail us and harm the interests of our nation and our state, they have Liz Cheney to thank."
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In her 2018 gubernatorial Republican primary, Hageman came in third place with 20.5% of the vote. Now-Gov. Mark Gordon won 33.4%, and Republican megadonor Foster Friess, whom Trump had endorsed in the race, was in second place with 25.6%.
Hageman is a fourth-generation Wyomingite, according to her website biography, and the daughter of the late former state Rep. James Hageman.
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Tags: News, Wyoming, Liz Cheney, Donald Trump, 2022 Elections
Original Author: Emily Brooks
Original Location: Harriet Hageman, former adviser to Cheney, launches campaign against her
