Donald Trump Jr. is continuing to rally his large social media following against GOP Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who is under fire from supporters of former President Donald Trump for her vote to impeach the departed commander-in-chief.
Cheney, a senior GOP figure and the chair of the House Republican Conference, is at the heart of the internal conflict in the party following its resounding defeat in the November election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a far-right Trump-supporting mob in January.
Cheney was among a handful of GOP representatives who voted to impeach Trump for a historic second time, prompting outrage among the former president’s supporters in Congress and around the country.
The Wyoming Senate, currently dominated 28-2 by the GOP, will vote on a new proposal Tuesday enacting a runoff system requiring primary candidates to win 50 percent of the vote to win a nomination.
Given that the Republican candidate often goes on to win the election in the deeply red state, the state party believes the new measure is necessary to ensure that those representing the state’s voters have majority support.
Trump Jr. has continued his political activism even while the rest of the Trump family has been largely silent since the former president left office. Trump Jr. has identified the measure as a way to attack Cheney, who he has dismissed as a “Republican in name only.”
“The Wyoming Senate is voting on SF145 tomorrow,” Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter on Monday. “SF145 would enact a runoff system in WY, so candidates need over 50% to win a primary. Liz Cheney allies are working behind the scenes to kill the bill! Contact the Republicans on the committee & tell them to support SF145!”
Cheney has won three elections in Wyoming, comfortably defeating her Democratic opponent in each one. She also won the 2018 and 2020 primaries with majority support, meaning the new proposal would not have changed the result then. In her first race in 2016, however, Cheney won the GOP primary with less than 40 percent of the vote.
But since voting to impeach Trump, Cheney has been grappling with fluctuating poll numbers and tensions with the Wyoming GOP.
Last month, the party voted 66-8 to censure Cheney for her opposition to Trump, accusing her of voting to impeach the former president even though, they claimed, Trump was not offered “formal hearing or due process.”
Cheney said she would not resign or apologize after being censured, but the furore around her appears to have damaged her popularity in the state. A January poll commissioned by Trump’s political operation found that 73 percent of Republican voters and 62 percent of all Wyoming voters held an unfavorable view of Cheney in the aftermath of her impeachment vote.
2022 primary challengers are now lining up to run against Cheney, using her opposition to Trump as an attack line hoping to appeal to a state that maintained staunch support of the divisive former president.
Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, for example, said last month in a fundraising email: “I’m asking MAGA Americans to help me ‘Impeach’ Liz Cheney next election when we the people, FIRE her!” The email added: “Liz Cheney backstabbed President Trump and voted for his impeachment!”
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