Trump critic Liz Cheney falls in US primaries, Murkowski survives

JACKSON, Wyo., Aug 17 (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, a fierce Republican critic of Donald Trump who played a leading role in Congress’s inquiry into the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, lost facing a Trump-backed primary. challenger in Wyoming on Tuesday.

But Senator Lisa Murkowski, another Republican who challenged the former president, took a leap in Alaska. She was scheduled to face Trump-endorsed challenger Kelly Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 congressional election, as both candidates advanced in that state’s nonpartisan primary.

Cheney’s defeat, by Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, marks a significant victory for the former president in his campaign to oust Republicans who backed his impeachment after a crowd of his supporters stormed the office building. Capitol last year.

In conceding the race, Cheney said she was unwilling “to accept President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election” to win a primary.

“I would have had to allow his continued efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. This was a path I could not and did not want to take,” she told her colleagues. supporters.

With 99% of expected ballots counted in Wyoming, Hageman led the Republican field with 66.3% of the vote, followed by Cheney with 28.9%, according to Edison Research, an election monitoring firm.

The results were less clear cut in Alaska.

With 72% of the expected ballots, Murkowski narrowly led with 42.7% of the vote, followed by Tshibaka at 41.4% and Democrat Patricia Chesbro at 6.2%, according to Edison. This state’s nonpartisan primary format eliminates all but the top four votes.

Murkowski, a moderate who is one of the most independent voices in the Senate, has held the seat since 2003.

Also in Alaska, Edison predicted that no candidate would emerge as the clear winner in the three-way contest to complete the term of Rep. Don Young, who died in March.

That race pits Sarah Palin, a former governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee who was endorsed by Trump, against fellow Republican Nick Begich III and Democrat Mary Peltola. The winner will be announced on August 31.

Wyoming and Alaska are both reliably Republicans, making the results unlikely to sway if President Joe Biden’s Democrats lose their wafer-thin congressional majorities. Republicans should take over the House and also have a chance to take control of the Senate.

ELIMINATE TRUMP CRITICISM

Cheney’s ousting is the latest sign of Trump’s enduring grip on the Republican Party.

Trump, who has hinted he will run for president in 2024, has made ending Cheney’s congressional career a priority among the 10 House Republicans he has targeted for backing his impeachment in 2021 .

Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, used her position on the Jan. 6 committee investigating the circumstances surrounding the Capitol riot to draw attention to Trump’s actions that day. and his false claims that he won the 2020 election.

Republican leaders are expected to dissolve the Jan. 6 inquiry if they take control of the House in November. Representatives to the new Congress sit in January.

Hageman, a natural resources lawyer who has embraced Trump’s campaign lies, criticized Cheney’s concession speech, saying it showed she cared little for the problems facing her state.

“She still focuses on an obsession with President Trump and the citizens of Wyoming, Wyoming voters sent a very strong message tonight,” Hageman said on Fox News.

Cheney in the House voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, while Murkowski in the Senate voted to convict him on the charge. Trump was ultimately acquitted.

Of the 10 Republicans who backed impeachment, it’s possible only one — Washington’s Dan Newhouse — will be in Congress after the November election.

Reporting by Liliana Salgado in Jackson, Wyoming, and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, additional reporting by Kanishka Singh, Eric Beech and Moira Warburton; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and John Stonestreet

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