Liz Cheney’s loss means Donald Trump’s purge of the Republican Party is complete
When Liz Cheney delivered her concession speech after losing the Wyoming Republican primary to Harriet Hageman, she rightly said that she could have easily won. But there would have been a catch.
“The path was clear. But it would've required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election,” she said. “It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take.”
Ms Cheney, of course, chose instead to impeach former president Donald Trump for inciting the attack on the US Capitol on January 6. She also refused to endear herself to Republicans by simply moving on after the impeachment trial ended, which led to House Republicans stripping her of her leadership position in the conference.
But while Ms Cheney is the most recent pro-impeachment Republican to lose her congressional seat, she isn’t the first. Just last week, representative Jaime Herrera Beutler – who also voted to impeach the former president – lost her primary to the Trump-endorsed Joe Kent, who appeared at a rally at the US Capitol to support people imprisoned for the riot on January 6.
Before then, representative Peter Meijer, a freshman Republican from Michigan, lost his primary to the Trump-endorsed John Gibbs. In an example of dirty trickery, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran ads highlighting Mr Gibbs’s extreme record to convince Republicans to vote for him in hopes that they could flip Michigan’s 3rd District in November.
But Mr Meijer likely sealed his fate the moment he decided to impeach Mr Trump. Similarly, Tom Rice lost his primary in South Carolina’s 7th District to Russell Fry, whom Mr Trump endorsed. In the end, only representatives David Valadao of California and Dan Newhouse of Washington state won their primaries and Valadao could easily lose the general election to a Democrat.
Meanwhile, the other Republicans who voted to impeach – such as representatives Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, John Katko of New York and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio – all decided not to seek re-election.
But the Trump purge isn’t limited to the House of Representatives. In Arizona’s Senate race, Mr Trump chose to endorse Blake Masters, an extremist candidate with a history of making racist remarks, instead of Mark Brnovich, the more electable attorney general, because Mr Brnovich didn’t go along with Mr Trump’s lie far enough.
In Georgia, Mr Trump cleared the field the moment he called on Herschel Walker to run for Senate against Raphael Warnock, while in Ohio his support for JD Vance catapulted him to the GOP nomination for Senate. In Pennsylvania, he endorsed television star Dr Oz to replace retiring senator Pat Toomey, who voted to convict Mr Trump for his role in the January 6 riot and in North Carolina, he endorsed Ted Budd to replace retiring senator Richard Burr, who also voted to convict him.
The rare cases where Mr Trump lost – such as when Brian Kemp won the gubernatorial primary in Georgia or when representative Madison Cawthorn lost his primary in North Carolina – happen because they had an established brand people either mistrusted or found too caustic.
Mr Trump’s purge of Republicans will likely continue as long as he remains in the public eye. And as long as that’s the case, expect the GOP to parrot him.
