Liz Cheney breaks fundraising record in first quarter of 2022

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney’s service on the House January 6th Select Committee may have gotten her kicked out of House Republican Conference leadership, but it’s doing wonders for her re-election campaign’s fundraising.

Ms Cheney, one of just two Republicans on the panel and the only one running for re-election, is facing a tough primary fight against Trump-endorsed GOP attorney Harriet Hageman.

According to Politico, her campaign war chest grew by a record $2.94m from 1 January to 31 March, doubling what Ms Hageman brought in over the same period, and bringing the total she’s raised for her re-election bid to a whopping $10m.

Ms Cheney’s fundraising haul for quarter even surpassed the $2m raised by her replacement as the House GOP conference chair, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York. And with four months to go before the 16 August primary, Ms Cheney has $6.8m to spend.

The Wyoming Republican’s massive first quarter haul beat a previous record of $1.5m set in the first quarter of 2021, as well as the $1.9m she raised in the second quarter, $1.7m in the third, and $2m in the last quarter of last year.

She has managed to keep up her fundraising despite having been censured by the Republican National Committee in a now-infamous statement whitewashing the 6 January Capitol attack as “legitimate political discourse” and has had establishment GOP figures such as Mitt Romney host fundraisers for her.

Ms Cheney is also thought to benefit from the GOP-controlled Wyoming legislature’s failure to pass a law in March which would’ve ended same-day party registration for primaries, which will enable Democratic voters to cross party lines and vote for her against Ms Hageman.

The legislature also declined to adopt a proposal endorsed by Donald Trump Jr, which would have changed Wyoming’s primary elections to a runoff system in hopes of making it harder for Ms Cheney to win re-election.