Murkowski prevails in the U.S. primary but Trump critic Liz Cheney loses.
Murkowski prevails in the U.S. primary but Trump critic Liz Cheney loses.
WYOMING, Aug. 17 (Reuters) - A Trump-backed primary opponent defeated U.S. Representative Liz Cheney in Wyoming on Tuesday. Cheney is a ferocious Republican critic of Donald Trump and has been heavily involved in the congressional investigation into the assault on the Capitol on January 6.
But another Republican who has resisted the former president, Senator Lisa Murkowski, overcame a challenge in Alaska. In the Nov. 8 congressional election, she was matched up with Trump's endorsed rival Kelly Tshibaka because both made it out of the state's nonpartisan primary.
An important triumph for the former president in his campaign to unseat Republicans who supported impeaching him after a crowd of his supporters demanded it, Cheney's defeat by Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman.
Wednesday, Cheney said she was thinking about running for president and that she would "do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office."
When questioned about a presidential candidacy on "Today," she responded, "It is something I am thinking about, and I'll make a decision in the coming months," noting that she still had a lot of work to do for the committee looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
According to election monitoring organisation Edison Research, Hageman led the Republican field in Wyoming with 66.3% of the vote, followed by Cheney with 28.9% of the vote.
In Alaska, the outcomes weren't as obvious.
According to Edison, Murkowski had a slim lead with 42.7% of the vote, followed by Tshibaka with 41.4% and Democrat Patricia Chesbro with 6.2% after 72% of the expected ballots had been counted. All but the top four vote-getters are eliminated under that state's non-partisan primary system.
Since 2003, the position has been held by Murkowski, a centrist who is one of the most independent voices in the Senate.
Edison also predicted that no contender would win the three-way race in Alaska to fill the remainder of the term of Representative Don Young, who passed away in March.
Sarah Palin, a former governor and Trump supporter who ran for vice president in 2008, is up against fellow Republicans Nick Begich III and Mary Peltola in that contest. The winning entry will be revealed on August 31.
It is unlikely that the outcomes will affect if President Joe Biden's Democrats lose their precariously thin congressional majorities because both Wyoming and Alaska are reliably Republican. Republicans are anticipated to regain control of the House, and they also stand a possibility of doing so in the Senate.
SUBSTRATING TRUMP CRITICISM
The dismissal of Cheney is the most recent illustration of Trump's continued control over the Republican Party.
Trump prioritised Cheney's political career as one of the 10 House Republicans he targeted for supporting his impeachment in 2021, since he has intimated that he will run for president in 2024.
Cheney has used her position on the committee looking into the circumstances surrounding the Capitol riot on January 6 to draw attention to Trump's actions on that day and his untrue claims that he won the 2020 election. Cheney is the daughter of former Republican vice president and current House Speaker Dick Cheney.
If Republicans take control of the House in November, it is anticipated that they will end the Jan. 6 probe.
In January, the representatives in the next Congress are sworn in.
Cheney's concession speech was slammed by Hageman, a natural resources attorney who has endorsed Trump's election falsehoods, for showing little concern for the problems affecting her state.
On Fox News, Hageman stated, "She's still fixated on an obsession about President Trump and the people of Wyoming, the voters of Wyoming sent a very strong message tonight.
Trump was accused of instigating a disturbance at the Capitol, and Cheney, a member of the House, voted to impeach him on that allegation, while Murkowski, a member of the Senate, voted to convict him. Trump was ultimately found not guilty. One Republican, Dan Newhouse of Washington, may be the only one of the ten who backed impeachment to remain in Congress following the election in November.
