(PatriotWise.com)- Following the stunning defeat of several of his backed candidates in the Georgia primary, former President Donald Trump will have to focus on Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney as he tries to use his clout in the Republican Party to expel those who do not think there was any voter fraud in 2020.
On Tuesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp defeated Trump-backed David Perdue in the gubernatorial primary, winning by more than 50 percentage points. On the same day, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defeated Trump’s preferred nominee, Representative Jody Hice, in the primary for the position. Raffensperger declined to help the former president overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
Kemp’s defeat over Perdue probably had angered Trump, given that he singled out Perdue as one of three GOP incumbents he was determined to see thrown out for not backing an investigation into why key battleground states paused counting when Trump was ahead, only to see him lose every state Biden needed to win.
Cheney is the most high-profile Republican figure Trump has publicly and consistently attempted to end their tenure in office now that Kemp has clinched his candidacy in November’s midterm elections.
However, unlike Kemp, who is still popular among Republicans in Georgia, experts believe Congresswoman Cheney will have a more challenging time repelling Trump’s retaliation campaign.
According to Dr. Audrey Haynes, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, Cheney is in a worse situation than Kemp in terms of her primary because she has more hurdles.
Haynes remarked that Cheney doesn’t have the benefits of being the governor, and she is someone who has been at the forefront of condemning Trump.
Cheney is one of only two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 incident. She was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for the Capitol attack.
Being such a vocal Trump opponent in a state where he received over 70% of the vote in 2020, according to Alvin Bernard Tillery, an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, might backfire on the congresswoman.
Unlike the other Republican survivors, Cheney’s engagement in the bipartisan January 6 committee goes far deeper than merely fighting Mr. Trump about the stolen election.
This isn’t the first time Cheney has dealt with internal party strife. In a purely symbolic gesture in November, the Wyoming Republican Party agreed no longer to recognize Cheney as a member of the party.
In February, Cheney and Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, the other Republican on the January 6 panel, were censured by the Republican National Committee for their involvement in probing the insurgency.
According to Haynes, Cheney’s prospects of winning the open Republican primary against Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman, state Senator Anthony Bouchard, and three others have been harmed since she has become the “face of the resistance to Trump” while cooperating with Democrats.
