Former President Donald Trump called for Wyoming to change its election law on Thursday to block non-Republicans from voting in Rep. Liz Cheney’s upcoming high-stakes GOP primary fight.
Possibly realizing that thousands of Democrats and independents may cross the aisle to back his arch-nemesis, Trump urged Wyoming lawmakers to change the rules as the politicking starts in earnest ahead of the August primary.
“It makes total sense that only Democrats vote in the Democrat primary and only Republicans vote in the Republican primary,” Trump wrote in an email message.
Trump is backing a bill making its way through the Wyoming legislature that would make party membership a requirement for voting in primaries. Wyoming is now one of many states that allow all registered voters to vote in any party’s primary.
The bill passed an initial test Thursday in the Wyoming Senate by a 20-10 vote.
The potential change would be a blow to Cheney. Even though Wyoming is dominated by Republicans, Cheney would likely be able to count on overwhelming support from Democrats and independents due to her outspoken leadership of the effort to hold Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Cheney has a bulging campaign war chest and a legendary name in Cowboy State politics. But she is facing a potent Trump-backed challenge from GOP state Sen. Harriet Hageman.
The onetime rising GOP star is one of 10 House Republicans, and by far the most prominent, to vote to impeach Trump for inciting the bloody storming of Capitol that was designed to keep him in power despite losing the election to President Biden.
Trump has declared war on all 10 and has backed primary challengers to all of them except Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), who has somehow stayed in his good graces. Several of the Trump critics have decided to step down rather than face potential humiliating losses.
He is particularly angry at Cheney who joined the Democratic-led House Select Committee probing Jan. 6 and has emerged as perhaps his most effective and powerful opponent within the GOP.
The House GOP ousted Cheney last winter and the Republican National Committee recently censured her and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. The resolution drew howls of outrage for calling the Jan. 6 attack “legitimate political discourse.”
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