Cheney sees early support — even among Democrats — in her Wyoming town

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney voted this morning at the Teton County Library, choosing to cast her ballot at a polling place in nearby Jackson, Wyoming, rather than at a location less than two miles from her home.

There was a wide expectation among residents in her hometown of Wilson that she would vote at the Old Wilson Schoolhouse. Some people — and many reporters — have been waiting for hours for Cheney to vote, but she chose to do so away from cameras rather than have a traditional photo opportunity on Election Day.

A Cheney adviser confirmed that she voted, but had no explanation for why she avoided the press at her neighborhood polling place.

Voters in Alaska on Tuesday are voting in two separate elections for the same US House seat — the state’s at-large congressional district seat.

That’s because there’s both a special general election to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term and a primary election to decide who will compete in November for the seat’s next full term starting in January.

It’s a complicated process. Beyond voting for the same seat twice in one day, different rules apply to the special general and primary elections.

What will happen in the special general election? The special general election will be the first time that Alaska will use ranked choice voting — which will see voters rank their preferred candidates, with the votes for the lowest-finishing candidates coming into play if no one tops 50% — to determine who will fill the remainder of Young’s term. If no one reaches that threshold, it’ll be a while until we know the winner, with the ranked choice voting tabulation scheduled to begin on Aug. 31.

What will happen in the primary? The primary will use a top-four system, which means that candidates of all parties, and those with no party affiliation, run on the same primary ballot — just as candidates did for the special election’s primary earlier this year. The top four performing candidates will then advance to the November general election for the full term.

Why is this happening? Young’s death led to the special election. He held the seat for 49 years, and following his death, there was a crowded field of 48 candidates who competed in the June special primary election for the seat.

Alaskan officials set the special general election to take place on the same day as the already scheduled primary.

Continue reading here.

Harriet Hageman proudly wears Wyoming on her sleeve – and wields it like a hammer against Liz Cheney.

“I know Wyoming. I love Wyoming. I am Wyoming,” Hageman told audiences as she traveled across the state during the closing days of a bitter Republican duel in one of the highest-profile congressional races in the country.

These days, signs of trouble for Cheney are easy to spot here in Wyoming. Hageman holds a commanding lead in the final weekend of a primary election that stands as yet another reminder of the Republican Party’s evolution in the era of Donald Trump.

A University of Wyoming poll released last week found that Cheney is trailing Hageman by 29 points. Yet one question looming over the Republican primary is how many Democrats and independents will switch parties and vote for Cheney, which even her supporters acknowledge is her only chance to stay competitive.

The venom in the Cheney-Hageman race comes alive in conversations with voters, dueling television ads and reports of stolen yard signs. Their relationship wasn’t always acrimonious, when Hageman stood alongside Cheney and showered her with praise during Cheney’s first bid for Congress in 2016.

Keep reading here.

The Republican nominee in at least 20 of this year’s 36 gubernatorial races is someone who has rejected, declined to affirm, raised doubts about, or tried to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

And the list will almost certainly get longer when the last batch of Republican primaries is completed over the coming weeks.

The 20 candidates on the list so far have expressed varying views about the 2020 election. Some have falsely proclaimed the election stolen; some others have been evasive when asked if Biden’s victory was legitimate. Some incumbents endorsed a 2020 lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden’s win but have said little about the election since; some first-time candidates made false election claims a focus of their successful 2022 primary campaigns.

Regardless, the presence of a large number of 2020 deniers, deceivers and skeptics on general election ballots in November raises the prospect of a crisis of democracy in the 2024 presidential election in which former President Donald Trump is widely expected to run again. Governors play a major role in elections – signing or vetoing legislation about election rules, sometimes unilaterally changing those rules, appointing key election officials, and, critically, certifying election results.

It is possible that some swing states will have their 2024 elections run by both a governor and elections chief who have vehemently rejected Biden’s victory.

In Arizona, for example, both Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem are conspiracy theorists who want to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in the state. In Pennsylvania, where the governor gets to nominate the election chief, the Republican gubernatorial nominee is Doug Mastriano, a fervent election denier who has taken various steps to try to reverse the 2020 result. Both Republican nominees in Michigan, Tudor Dixon for governor and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state, have falsely claimed Trump won the state in 2020.

Read about them here.

The doors opened at the Old Wilson Schoolhouse shortly after sunrise, with voters trickling in to cast their ballots in the small Wyoming town that GOP Rep. Liz Cheney calls home.

Libbe Burchfield, who has lived in Wilson for four decades, is a Democrat. But she said she switched parties today to vote for Cheney, as a sign of respect for her leadership on the Jan. 6 House select committee.

Burchfield said she realizes it’s an uphill battle for Cheney, but added, “I hope enough of us changed parties to get behind her and she still has a chance.”

A University of Wyoming poll released last week found that Cheney is trailing Harriet Hageman — backed by former President Donald Trump — by 29 points.

Throughout the morning, a steady stream of voters arrived at the polling place, which is one of four in Teton County. 

The school, which serves as a community center for this small town outside Jackson, is close to Cheney’s house. Several residents said they expect her to cast her ballot here before day’s end.

Resident John Grant did not have to change his parties to cast his vote for Cheney. He said he’s a longtime Republican, and he’s frustrated the party is still in the grips of Trump.

“It certainly is a tough race for Liz. She does a good job and works hard at what she does,” Grant said. “She stood up for what she believes in. It took a lot of courage to step against the Republican Party and Donald Trump and Republicans in general.”

Alaska will hold a ranked choice special general election for its House seat to fill the remainder of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s term.

While four candidates advanced to the special general, only three candidates are on the ballot, after independent candidate Al Gross withdrew from the race.

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, Republican Nick Begich III, who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola are on the ballot.

What is ranked choice voting and how does it work? It literally rank their choices in order of preference, marking candidates as their first, second and third choice picks (and so on).

The winner must have a majority (more than 50% of the votes) rather than a plurality (simply the most votes).

In Alaska’s special general election, only first choice votes will be reported on election night.

The ranked choice voting tabulation will be conducted on Aug. 31. That means that, except in the unlikely event that one candidate gets a majority of the initial preference votes, we won’t be able to project a winner until the end of the month.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized former President Donald Trump as a “threat to our republic” and a “coward” in a campaign ad for his daughter, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who’s facing a competitive Republican primary today.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the former vice president said in the 60-second spot released earlier this month. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

He said he “proudly voted” for his daughter, who is the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

“There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office,” Cheney added.

Though Cheney has occasionally criticized Trump and his administration’s policies, the ad underscored his deep opposition to the former President, who has made defeating Liz Cheney a top political priority after she voted to impeach him last year and has remained a vocal critic.

The Cheney campaign purchased a series of national ad spots on Fox News to run the spot.

Trump has endorsed Harriet Hageman in the primary, who’s one of four challengers taking on the three-term congresswoman for the nomination for the at-large House seat. Her rivals have attacked Cheney over her role as one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel and have dismissed that probe’s importance.

Like Trump, Hageman has made false claims about the 2020 election, citing the “2000 Mules” film that peddles conspiracy theories about ballot drop boxes and “Zuckerberg money” – a reference to donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, through a nonprofit to help local elections officials navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN’s Eric Bradner and David Wright contributed to this report.

In at least 10 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy – especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem of Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden’s victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a “scam,” the vote “tainted” and the outcome “questionable.”

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as “lawless.” The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 10 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden “legitimately occupies” the presidency, while Finchem, a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election, has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden’s victory in Arizona.

Read about them here.

Wyoming’s most competitive primary race will be the Republican primary for the state’s at-large congressional seat. Rep. Liz Cheney will face Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman as Cheney attempts to survive her most contentious election yet. 

Cheney is one of the most high-profile anti-Trump Republicans in Congress. In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol when Cheney called for her party to move on from former President Donald Trump and voted to impeach him. Cheney’s criticism of Trump led to his backers in the House to successfully push for her to be removed from her position as the chairwoman of the GOP conference. She now serves as vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

Here’s what to know about the key race:

Cheney is facing a steep primary challenge in Wyoming’s at-large congressional district. Trump, following the defeats of three other House Republicans who voted to impeach him, is hoping his endorsement of Hageman — who has claimed the 2020 election was rigged — delivers him a fourth victory.

In one of Cheney’s recent TV ads, her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, said that “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of GOP leadership have endorsed Hageman. Three other Republicans round out the primary ballot.

Poll times: Wyoming is in the Mountain Time Zone, and polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

Voter eligibility: There is not a voter registration deadline in Wyoming as voters can register the same day they vote. Only registered members of political parties can participate in those parties’ primary contests. However, voters can change their party affiliation in-person on Election Day. Anyone casting their ballot at the polls will have to show an ID.

Read more about where the “Impeachment 10” stand going into midterms.