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Wyoming residents at a diner in Casper are overwhelmingly in support of Representative Liz Cheney’s GOP primary rival Harriet Hageman – but there were at least two men who said they weren’t turning on their current congresswoman.
Robert Morris, 73, a local of Casper, told DailyMail.com on Saturday that ‘Liz is a real Republican’ and said he would be voting for her in the August primary elections in Wyoming.
The former engineer said he is a ‘registered Republican’, but voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
‘Just everything he [Donald Trump] did turned me off. I mean, I didn’t think much of Hillary Clinton either, but I voted for her rather than him,’ Morris said while dining with a friend at the bar at Johnny J’s Diner in Casper, Wyoming.
Married couple Ed, 64, and Liz, 63, felt differently.
‘I’m gonna support Hageman,’ Ed told DailyMail.com on Saturday hours before Trump is set to appear on stage to rally for the candidate he is backing against Cheney.
‘I’m pretty disappointed in Liz Cheney’s whole – just kind of everything that’s going on,’ Ed continued. ‘She seems to have kind of lost her way. And I don’t know if, I guess it’s Trump loathing or something. I don’t know. She just does not seem to me like she’s American.’
Thousands of Trump supporters arrived at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper on Saturday to rally for candidate Harriet Hageman, who is taking on anti-Trump GOP Representative Liz Cheney in the August primary election
Several Wyoming residents at Johnny J’s Diner on Saturday told DailyMail.com that they will vote for Hageman – but not because of Trump’s endorsement. Billboards around Casper urged voters to ‘Ditch Liz!’
The couple, who were dining with a third woman who is attending the rally Saturday, said that they voted for Cheney in all of her previous elections, but will not be recasting a ballot for her in the primaries on August 16, 2022.
But Liz said their ballot for Hageman has nothing to do with Trump’s endorsement of the trial lawyer.
‘I’m voting for Hageman, not because of Trump though,’ she said. ‘I’m voting because I don’t believe in Liz Cheney.
‘So it’s different, for me it isn’t about coattails or anything like that.’
While it’s unclear where Republicans want Trump in the party, the former president has proven he has coattails. So far in the 2022 primary races, his success rate is at 68.4 percent with 13 wins, six loses and two heading to a runoff.
Her husband agreed: ‘It’s not because of Trump versus Cheney. It’s all the stuff that – the disappointment that I have with Cheney.
‘It wouldn’t have mattered to me whether Trump endorsed her or not. I think Hageman is the strongest candidate to unseat Cheney.’
Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, who is attending Trump’s rally in Wyoming Saturday, accused Cheney of trying to ‘destroy’ the GOP and Congress itself in a conversation with DailyMail.com ahead of the former president’s speech in Casper.
Two men dining at Johnny J’s on Saturday told DailyMail.com that they will still support Liz Cheney (pictured on May 22, 2022). Robert Morris, 73, a local of Casper, said ‘Liz is a real Republican’
‘Liz Cheney is the worst candidate for Wyoming,’ the former House Freedom Caucus chair said.
‘Harriet is going to be an America first-er. I mean, she gets the policies that I think the conservative populist movement is taking hold of. I really, really think she gets it, and she’s going to carry it forward and advocate for it in Congress.’
He added, ‘And Liz Cheney, instead of trying to work with the Republican Party and build it up in Congress, is now trying to actively destroy – not just the party, but the institution itself.’
Biggs is among several high-profile speakers the former president invited to Saturday’s rally, Trump’s first appearance in Wyoming for Hageman since recruiting her to run against Cheney in the August 16 Republican primary.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who also turned against Cheney to endorse Hageman, is expected to make a video address.
Pro-Trump firebrand Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, as well as Matt Gaetz and Kate Cammack of Florida are due to speak in-person.
Cheney has become one of Trump’s biggest sources of rage after the three-term congresswoman defected from MAGA Republicans and became one of the two GOP members to join the Democrat-led committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot.
A poll released Friday – the same day of the filing deadline for the Wyoming GOP primary – shows that Trump-backed Harriet Hagemen is a whopping 30 points ahead of Representative Liz Cheney
Trump’s animus against the conservative lawmaker appears to be what drew him to pull Hageman into the race – a former ally of Cheney’s who unsuccessfully ran for Wyoming governor in 2018.
Ed said while Hageman is ‘not a perfect candidate’, he was ‘impressed with how she seemed to know more about Wyoming than all the other candidates put together.’
‘She’s obviously traveled the state, she understands the state,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘Trump is not a perfect guy either. I think he was the right leader for the day.’
A poll released the day before Trump’s visit to Wyoming shows Representative Cheney trailing Hageman by a whopping 30 points.
The WPAi/Club for Growth PAC survey shows that 56 percent of Republican Wyoming primary voters would support Hageman if the election were held today.
Trump endorsed Hageman to replace Cheney after the three-term congresswoman defected from MAGA Republicans and became one of the two GOP members to join the Democrat-led committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot.
Cheney officially filed for the 2022 primary on Thursday, but only 26 percent said they would vote for her reelection of the 400 likely Republican primary voters polled in the deep red state on May 24 and 25.
Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard is in third place with 12 percent, while another 6 percent are undecided on who they will vote for come primary election day on August 16, 2022.
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