UPDATE: Requests to Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne, Wyoming Republican Party Executive Director Kathy Russell and the state party’s legal counsel Brian Shuck for comment and a copy of the Rule 11 letter, which would initiate the resolution, have not been answered. Similar requests to the national press secretary for the Republican National Convention have also not been returned.
With the support of the Wyoming GOP, the Republican National Committee passed a special resolution at its meeting Friday to recognize Harriet Hageman as the presumptive Republican nominee in Wyoming’s U.S. House race, according to reports by The Washington Post and the New York Times. That could make it possible for the national party to financially support Hageman ahead of the primary election against Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. Wyoming election law, however, prohibits any political party from backing an opposed candidate before the primary election.
- What we know: Wyoming statute 22-25-104 states, “no political party funds shall be expended directly or indirectly in the aid of the nomination of any one person as against another person of the same party running in the primary election.” Neither Wyoming’s attorney general nor secretary of state returned WyoFile’s request for comment on the potential violation before press time.
- Why it matters: The resolution is the latest move by the Republican party against the congresswoman, who has criticized former President Donald Trump for his disproven claims of a stolen election and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cheney has so far out-fundraised the Trump-endorsed Hageman by a remarkable margin. The rule would allow the RNC to funnel money, volunteers and other support to Hageman’s campaign through the state’s GOP party.
- Who said what: Cheney lambasted the move through a spokesperson. “Frank Eathorne and the Republican National Committee are trying to assert their will and take away the voice of the people of Wyoming before a single vote has even been cast,” Jeremy Adler, a Cheney spokesperson said. Eathorne did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment by press time.
- Related news: The RNC also voted to censure Cheney along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) for their participation in the Jan. 6 investigation, declaring the attack on the Capitol “legitimate political discourse.”
This story has been updated to include the name of Cheney’s spokesperson – Ed.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to attribute previous reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times. – Ed
Who is going to host a debate with all the candidates and conduct a statewide poll? August 16 is just around the corner! Wyoming gets to choose the most qualified candidate.
The Rule of Law is a bedrock principle of both our Republics: the Great State of Wyoming and the United States of America. It used to be a bedrock principle of the Republican Party. I thus salute Liz and Adam for seeking to honor the law and the Oaths they swore to the Constitution and thus to the Republic given by that document through the people and the Several States.
Former President Trump appears to occupy an imaginary world where neither the law nor the Constitution applies to him. O’ the error of his ways. May the long arm of the law catch up with him and soon.
As Trump once said of the office of President, “the power is total.” He was wrong about that too. I am extraordinarily grateful that he did not conduct a sit-in at the White House and he left without another ruckus; though, he was too sour to attend the Inauguration of his successor. I appears his bruised ego was more important than a show of Unity for our Great Nation. How much does he care for Wyoming?
Now, in classic Orwellian Newspeak, the RNC, which he somehow still puppeteers, declares the actions of those who stormed Congress “legitimate political discourse”. This is a finely polished window in on their façade evincing their total lust for power, the abject terror they’re losing it, and their disdain for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
And with that disdain, the RNC plots to somehow funnel Harriet money to subvert the will of the people of Wyoming. Didn’t they promise to drain the swamp? Now they want to bring it here!
And, whilst we are on the subject of law, Harriet the Trumpette, a learned constitutional lawyer, when asked in Jackson last month about her take on election law and Trump’s “stolen election” narrative, appeared a deer in the headlights. She claimed to not know much about it. Mighty convenient answer. Thankfully, Pence made it clear to her and to us: he had not the power to overturn the will of the people and the electorate. The people had spoken. The Constitution is written. Trump had lost. Even Mitch called it the “violent insurrection” it was.
I think it odd that not one other Republican who won their particular election on the same voting machines registering Trump’s loss feels the same impetus to cry fraud. Somehow, their votes are valid and correct whilst the #OrangeGodKing’s are not.
It’s time to do away with the “duopolistic tyranny” of the two party system, which promotes such despotism, such authoritarianism. We ought to move to securely encrypted blockchain voting and get rid of the plurality voting system that generates the two factions so concerning to the founders that Madison felt compelled to warn us about it in Federalist Paper 10, easily found in the National Archive online. At the heart of the separation of powers is that concern.
In a multiparty democratic republic, the gridlocked swamp in DC would cease to exist. No faction could achieve enough power to oppress the other. People would have to compromise and practice forbearance. With encrypted blockchain voting our vote would be unalterable and would be auditable into perpetuity by each and every citizen.
With this a reality, our politics would cease to be a race to the bottom of a zero-sum “game,” rooted in a primitive “us vs them” mentality, waged on the frontlines of a “culture war” between two parties hell-bent on destroying each other in an existential battle of “good versus evil”. Such ways of being are destroying this nation.
Secure in our elections, genuinely represented, realizing as the founders did that we are all in this together, we could return to the foundational principles of self-governance, rooted in liberty, of the people, by the people, for the people. Only then will we secure the blessings of liberty to our children’s children’s children.
***
You’ll be hearing more from me as I too have thrown my hat in the ring. I seek a middle path in forming a new party, a Grand Coalition, a radically responsible party, classically liberal, fiercely rational, fiscally and constitutionally conservative, anti-federalist, anti-clerical, and free from any form of tyranny over the mind of man, woman or child.
We have a republic … if we can keep it.
-fiat lux! Cx
Wyoming gets a choice. That’s why it’s election and not an appointment from an endorsement. Deliberately violating Wyoming law in favor of an endorsed candidate is wrong. Disregard for rule of law is how the past election lost America’s trust and confidence in our voting process. Let Wyomingites chose our one Representative. Dentonknapp.com
Since you are running, perhaps you can clarify your stance on a couple of things.
Do you believe the election was stolen from chrump?
Do you classify the January 6th insurrection as a “legitimate political discourse”?
Myself, and other readers, would like to hear your opinion. Thanks
The RNC shows itself, yet again, to be an extension of the Trump cult. The best hope that Dems have for success in 2022 and beyond is that these cultists, Trump lackeys and ignoramuses will continue to control the now degraded and depraved RNC.
There are really two questions here. 1. When the RNC offers money to Hageman in the primary will she have the integrity and courage to refuse it? 2. If she doesn’t is there anyone in the state with the courage to prosecute her and the RNC? I am not holding my breath for either.
It seems that we are so helpless over corruption and lies if you have enough money you can do anything , and it’s the tax payers burden
Once again, I am amazed at the stupidity of the Wyoming Republicans and now they have infected the National Party with that ailment.
Sooo .. Based on whet was said and done in Utah..The party of “Law and Order” now seems to endorse attaching cops and legislators if it is in support of their parties objectives. Sure sounds like an attempt to license the overthrow of federal and local governments.
“Legitimate political discourse”?????
More like a “felonious demonstration of sedition” by fools hoodwinked by the country’s greatest conman and now abetted by a GOP who have collectively drank the coolaid and are now willing to sacrifice whatever morality and self respect they ever had to deliberately corrupt the US constitution for their own power grab.
Prosecute them all !!!!
I applaud Liz Cheney for maintaining her integrity and conscience while the majority of the RNC prove they have no regard for truth or the Constitution. I’d love for the Republican Party to return to pre-Trump values and ideologies. Maybe then I’d be able to consider myself a Republican again.
Back in the days of Powell High School debate, our file of note cards included a section of “killer quotes” to bring out as needed to forcefully make our case. We’d have stashed a Glock 9mm in the drawer had we understood that was an acceptable part of “legitimate political discourse”. Dang!
No surprise here. Republicans have proved pretty convincingly that election laws mean nothing to them.
And in many ways, nor do honesty, freedom, or inherent human rights.
The Republican Party, on local, state and national levels, is proving to be the party of Trump. As disastrous as this could be, I know this also to be true-there are millions of lifelong Republicans who twice voted for Trump, but were changed by January 6th. Those same folks know Trump lost, fair and square, to Joe Biden. Our democracy is at risk. Liz Cheney is a patriot……….