Rep Liz Cheney’s campaign account and her leadership political action committee gave zero dollars to Republicans in the final fundraising quarter of 2021, Federal Election Commission documents show.
The increasingly embattled Republican went from being one of the most prolific fundraisers for Republicans in her capacity as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference to withholding her sizeable campaign coffers.
When Ms Cheney was chairwoman, her Cowboy PAC gave prolifically to Republicans. In 2020, it gave $358,700 to House Republican incumbents and challengers alike, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Ms Cheney raised $20.5m between the months of October and December 2021. She currently faces a primary challenge from Harriet Hageman, whom former president Donald Trump endorsed. Ms Cheney was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr Trump for his incitement of the riot on the Capitol on January 6.
Since then, her PAC is far more sparing about who receives money. Cowboy PAC gave to nine incumbent Republicans, all of whom joined her in voting for impeachment. But three of them – Reps Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and John Katko of New York – have since announced they will not seek re-election. The PAC also gave to Julia Letlow, who won a special election in Louisiana after her husband died, as well as Michael Wood and Susan Wright, both of whom lost in their attempts to fill a vacancy caused by Rep Ron Wright, who also died.
But this last fundraising quarter, neither Ms Cheney’s campaign account nor her PAC gave anything. Emails to her congressional office and her campaign from The Independent were not returned.
Since then, Ms Cheney continued to criticise the GOP and the former president for his lies that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election. As a result, House Republicans voted to boot her from her chairwomanship and made Rep Elise Stefanik of New York the new chairwoman.
The Wyoming Republican currently serves as vice chairwoman of the House’s select committee investigating the attempted insurrection. She and Rep Adam Kinzinger, who is retiring after the current Congress, are the only Republicans to serve after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all of his members. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Mr McCarthy’s selection of Reps Jim Jordan and Jim Banks.
Last week, the Republican National Committee voted to censure Ms Cheney and Mr Kinzinger for their membership on the committee, saying they are “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.”
