Liz Cheney has said she would rather vote for Democratic candidate Tim Ryan instead of Donald Trump-backed Republican JD Vance in Ohio’s Senate race.
The Ohio Senate race has become a neck-and-neck battle between Mr Ryan, a centrist Democratic member of the House, and author JD Vance, who wrote the book Hillbilly Ellegy, which was adapted into a Netflix movie by Hollywood filmmaker Ron Howard.
Mr Vance subsequently launched his political career and was endorsed by one-time president Mr Trump.
“I would not vote for JD Vance,” Ms Cheney, the Republican representative for Wyoming, said in an interview with PBS NewsHour on Tuesday.
When asked if she would vote for Mr Ryan if she were a Buckeye State voter, Ms Cheney said: “I would.”
This is not the first time that Ms Cheney has pledged support for a Democratic candidate.
Ms Cheney crossed party lines last week after she announced her endorsement of Democratic representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
Ms Cheney also stated last week that she will no longer be a Republican if Mr Trump is made the GOP nominee for president in 2024.
Were Mr Trump to successfully win the nomination, the party would “shatter”, she said.
Ms Cheney was one of only 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr Trump for his role in inciting the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. She has also served as the vice-chair of the the House Select Committee investigating the causes of the pro-Trump mob attack, the worst on the US Capitol since 1814.
In August, she was defeated in Wyoming’s Republican primary by Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman.
The Ohio Senate race is being closely watched as it would solidify the Democrats hold to some degree while a Republican hold on the seat will be crucial for them to have any chance of retaking the upper house.
Republicans have held the Ohio senate seat occupied by the retiring Rob Portman, the state’s junior senator, since 1999, when Mr Portman’s predecessor George Voinovich was sworn in to replace Democratic senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth.
As it is, Ms Cheney gets to vote in Wyoming, where she has served as its sole member of Congress since 2017. This summer, she was beaten in the Republican primary in a landslide by the Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman. Ms Hageman is now all but guaranteed vicitory in the general election, given the level of Republican suppport in the state.
