Liz Cheney is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming. She’s primarying incumbent Mike Enzi, who was the fourth most conservative member of the upper chamber in 2012. Interestingly, Cheney is running as a conservative, and has abruptly moved to the right on one issue dear to the Republican base: marriage. She said on Fox News Sunday over the weekend she believes in the “traditional definition of marriage,” which has since sparked an internal family feud. (Cheney’s sister, Mary, married her female partner in 2012; they have two kids together). To say that things are now awkward between them would be an understatement:
The feud between Mary and Liz Cheney has ramped up with Mary Cheney taking to Facebook to accuse her sister of regarding Mary and her wife as "second class citizens."
Mary Cheney's wife, Heather Poe, over the weekend suggested that Liz Cheney, who is running for Senate in Wyoming, has taken a position against gay marriage despite embracing their relationship in private. Mary Cheney re-posted Poe's Facebook post, and on Sunday afternoon expanded on Liz Cheney's anti-gay marriage position.
"This isn't like a disagreement over grazing fees or what to do about Iran," Mary Cheney wrote to a commenter on her Facebook page who suggested she should be "lovingly tolerant" of her sister's position. "There isn't a lot of gray here. Either You think all families should be treated equally or you don't. Liz's position is to treat my family as second class citizens. That's not a position I can be 'lovingly tolerant' towards."
That’s her own sister saying that. Tough week, Liz. Meanwhile, here’s what Cheney’s sister-in-law said on her Facebook page on Sunday:
I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say “I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.”
Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 – she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us.
To have her now say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the least.
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As if this didn’t complicate things enough, Cheney’s not doing so hot in the polls, either:
Liz Cheney’s support has faded in Wyoming since the summer, according to internal polling conducted for a super PAC that’s been running ads against her and shared exclusively with POLITICO.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R) has expanded his lead over the former vice president’s daughter by 12 points among likely primary voters since August. The three-term incumbent was up 52 points, 69 percent to 17 percent, in a survey conducted by Bob Wickers of The Wickers Group at the end of October.
52 points? In fairness, Team Cheney told the Daily Caller things really aren’t all that bad, or something:
Liz Cheney’s Senate campaign is pouring cold water on a new poll indicating the Republican candidate is getting trounced by more than 50 points in her campaign against Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi.
In an interview with The Daily Caller on Monday, Cheney pollster Chris Wilson expressed strong skepticism about those numbers, saying the outfit has been wrong about Senate races before.
Wilson declined to provide TheDC with the campaign’s internals — saying, “I don’t want to get into a releasing-poll game. There’s no value on that” — but said the Cheney campaign’s numbers indicate the race between the two Republicans is much closer.
The backlash from this unseemly episode is unlikely to convince Wyomans Liz is a True Conservative. In truth, many Republicans probably supposed, like her dad, she supported same-sex marriage, anyway. Apparently not? No wonder Liz and Mary aren’t having Thanksgiving together.
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