Liz Cheney prepares for next act in GOP where Trump holds sway

­­­Bloomberg

Republican Representative Liz Cheney said she wants to lead a charge to break Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP, setting up a new political action committee and saying she’s considering a run for president.
After being trounced in Wyoming’s GOP primary by Trump-backed conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman, Cheney said she would do “whatever it takes” to block the former president’s path back to the White House in 2024.
“I believe that Donald Trump continues to pose a very grave threat — a risk to our republic — and I think defeating him is going to require a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents and that’s what I intend to be a part of,” Cheney, 56, who has served three terms in Wyoming’s sole US House seat, said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” program.
She said she’s “thinking about” a bid for the presidency and would be making a decision “in the coming months.”
Although several recent polls have indicated Trump’s support in the Republican Party is slipping, he remains a formidable presence and a substantial influence for GOP voters. The vast majority of the candidates Trump has endorsed since leaving office have won or advanced to the general election, and few Republican officeholders have been willing to publicly criticize the former president.
Cheney was the last of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year after the insurrection at the US Capitol to face voters and the fourth to lose a primary to a candidate he backed.
Only two will make it to the general election and four decided to retire. Trump had aimed his vengeance on Cheney in particular for her prominent role in a House committee’s investigation into the insurrection.
In one counter-point, Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday advanced to a general election race with Kelly Tshibaka, a former state official backed by Trump. Murkowski, one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, was the leading vote-getter in the state’s open primary. The top four candidates will be on the November ballot.
Another Trump favorite in Alaska, former Governor Sarah Palin, also advanced.
To advance her cause, Cheney has rebranded her campaign committee as a political action committee called “The Great Task,” a nod to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, which she also referenced in her concession speech on Tuesday.
The move allows Cheney to accept up to $5,000 from individuals per election, more than the $2,900 her campaign could receive. It would also give her resources to fund Trump’s opponents, amplify her opposition to the former president in television ads and fuel legal efforts.
But she’d be unable to use more than $5,000 of the money she raises or had leftover from her campaign should she decide to run for another office.
Her spokesperson, Jeremy Adler, said there was nothing to “preview” about Cheney’s next steps.