by Mary Lou Masters
Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is considering running as a third-party presidential candidate in 2024, citing her commitment to do “whatever it takes” to prevent former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Cheney, who lost her 2022 reelection bid to the Trump-backed Harriet Hageman by over 37 points, warned of what she views as dangers a second Trump administration could bring during an interview with the Post. The former congresswoman would add to an already crowded field of third-party candidates, including independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and a potential No Labels ticket with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
“Several years ago, I would not have contemplated a third-party run,” Cheney told the Post. “I happen to think democracy is at risk at home, obviously, as a result of Donald Trump’s continued grip on the Republican Party, and I think democracy is at risk internationally as well.”
Cheney suggested a decision as to whether she would mount a third-party presidential bid could come early 2024, according to the Post.
“We face threats that could be existential to the United States and we need a candidate who is going to be able to deal with and address and confront all of those challenges,” Cheney told the Post. “That will all be part of my calculation as we go into the early months of 2024.”
The former congresswoman was a leading voice on the Jan. 6 Committee, and she voted with nine other House Republicans to impeach Trump. Cheney founded The Great Task political action committee following her 2022 loss, which is reportedly aimed at preventing Trump from being reelected.
“Liz Cheney is a loser who is trying to sell a book that either belongs in the discount bargain bin in the fiction section of the bookstore or should be repurposed as toilet paper,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “This is nothing more than a loser trying to stay relevant as the Republicans Party has passed her by. Liz clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and needs to address the underlying issues in her own personal life.”
The RealClearPolitics average for a 2024 national Republican and Democratic primary, based on the most recent polling, suggest Trump and President Joe Biden are leading their respective fields with 61.3% and 68.4% support, respectively. Kennedy has been able to garner double digit support in several polls, while other third-party candidates lag behind in the surveys in the low single digits.
Cheney has been serving as a professor of practice at the University of Virginia’s Center For Politics, giving guest lectures in classes and at events while also participating in research.
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Mary Lou Masters is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
