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Inside Trump's intense search for a Cheney challenger - POLITICO

Inside Trump's intense search for a Cheney challenger - POLITICO

Inside Trump's intense search for a Cheney challenger - POLITICO
Jul 23, 2021 2 mins, 42 secs

Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks to reporters on May 12, 2021, after House Republicans voted to oust her from her leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference because of her repeated criticism of former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in instigating the Jan.

Former President Donald Trump’s top political advisers have been holding quiet talks over the last several months with the primary challengers looking to take down his most prominent Republican nemesis: Wyoming Rep.

During phone calls and Zoom chats, the Trump advisers have pressed the candidates on their fundraising capabilities, their policy positions and the overall strength of their campaign organizations.

The talks will escalate next week, when Trump meets with two challengers at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club: state Rep.

Trump is expected to sit down with other candidates before deciding whom to endorse, though advisers say that Gray and Smith have emerged as the two clear frontrunners.

Shortly after the January impeachment vote, the former president’s advisers began reaching out to the state Republican Party chair, Frank Eathorne, and state legislators to take their temperature on Wyoming’s political landscape.

Matt Gaetz, traveled to the state to campaign against Cheney.

But Meier said he wasn’t interested and instead recommended Gray, a state legislator and former radio show host who is staunchly supportive of the former president.

In late January, Trump pollster John McLaughlin commissioned a 500-person survey through the former president's political action committee, which asked respondents their opinion of Gray and whether they would support him or Cheney in a primary matchup.

Trump has been in touch with Club for Growth President David McIntosh, who has briefed Trump on his organization’s interviews with the candidates and urged him to hold off on making an endorsement until he’s certain he’s found the right person.

In the end, though, Trump advisers say it will be the former president who makes the final call on who gets the endorsement.

“If they think that they are going to come into Wyoming and make the argument that the people of Wyoming should vote for someone who is loyal to Donald Trump over somebody who is loyal to the Constitution, I welcome that debate,” Cheney said during a May appearance on NBC’s “Today Show.”.

Trump supporters say they are confident Cheney can be beaten, pointing to polling showing her deeply vulnerable in a state Trump won by more than 40 percentage points.

The January survey by Trump's political committee showed only 28 percent expressing a favorable view of Cheney; the figure was barely any better — 29 percent — in an April Club for Growth poll.

Republicans also note that Cheney's father, former vice president and ex-Wyoming congressman Dick Cheney, remains well-liked in the state.

If she is opposed by multiple Trump candidates they will simply divide the vote,” letting Cheney “win against a divided field,” said Roger Stone, a former Trump political adviser.

Bouchard revealed to Fox News Tuesday that he was not among the candidates Trump would be meeting with at Bedminster next week

While neither would acknowledge any upcoming meeting with Trump, they hinted they would each be willing to exit the race if he wasn’t the former president’s choice

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

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