Former president Donald Trump’s Save America rally in Casper on May 28 attracted several thousand attendees as he reiterated his support for candidateHarriet Hageman in her bid to defeat incumbent U.S. RepresentativeLiz Cheney in the Aug. 16 Republican primary.
A hail of boos echoed through theFord Wyoming Center when Cheney’s name was mentioned. Hageman said Wyoming is looking for a better voice in Washington, D.C. than Cheney.
“I know Wyoming, I love Wyoming, I am Wyoming,” Hageman stated in her speech. “I know what it means to rank for the brand. To be loyal to the outfit that hired you and to always keep your word.”
Hageman’s speech also included numerous references to Wyomingites being ‘fed up’ with Cheney and the federal government in Washington, D.C. She said her experience as an attorney fighting federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) make her qualified to defend Wyoming against federal overreach and threats to the state’s energy and way of life.
“We're fed up with the federal government that doesn't seem to work for us anymore,” she continued. “We're fed up with out-of-control spending, and we're fed up with the radical Biden agenda.”
Hageman said she has driven all over the state and has found that there’s a consistent theme to what Wyomingites are feeling.
“I have driven over 23,000 miles around Wyoming since I announced that I was running for congress and there has been one overriding theme that I have heard over, and over, and over again and that is we’re fed up."
She expressed confidence that she would defeat Cheney in the primary. A poll conducted May 24 and 25 by The Club for Growth PAC said Hageman would get 56 percent of the vote and Cheney 26 percent if the vote was held today. They say they surveyed 400 likely Republican voters in Wyoming and placed the margin of error at plus or minus five percent. Trump has alsolaunched a fundraiser specifically to defeat her. Cheney has won by landslide margins in each of her previous three elections to the House.
“I'm going to reclaim Wyoming’s lone congressional seat from that Virginian who currently holds it,” she said in reference to the lengthy period of time Cheney lived in the Washington, D.C. area. “She knows [Cheney] that I am that person who will represent you, your family, your businesses and your interests–[and] that I will always put America first,” said Hageman.
Trump then took to the podium and spoke for an hour and a half on many different topics. But he underscored his support for Hageman and urged attendees to vote against Cheney.
“Over the next six months the people of Wyoming are going to vote to dump your RINO Congresswoman Liz Cheney,” Trump said to raucous applause. “You're going to send the incredible Harriet Hageman to Congress and together we are involved in ending crazy Nancy Pelosi’s political career.”
Trump also criticized crossover voting in Wyoming’s primary, critical race theory, transgender girls in sports, absentee voting, and illegal immigration, among the many topics he spoke on. He also accused Cheney of colluding with Democrats and supplying them with sound bites used in their candidates’ political ads and supporting endless wars, calling her a “warmonger” who loves “endless, nonsensical bloody wars.”
“So, get your friends, get your family, get out and vote for Harriet, [a] great woman,” he said.
Before Hageman and Trump took to the podium, otherspeakers that welcomed Trump and criticized Cheney from Wyoming included current and former state legislators, and Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Eathorne, as well as several members of congress, many who have locked horns with Cheney.
