Rep. Liz Cheney's (R-WY) colleagues in the House may have been willing to overlook her impeachment vote, but Wyoming Republicans are not. On Saturday, the state's Republican Party officially censured Cheney and called for her resignation.
Sixty-six members on the state GOP's 74-member committee reportedly agreed to the censure, accusing Cheney of voting to impeach President Trump even though the House failed to offer the president a formal hearing or due process.
Before casting her impeachment vote, Cheney said Trump "summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," in reference to the Capitol riot in early January.
According to a copy of the censure obtained by Forbes, the state GOP is calling on Cheney to "immediately resign" and allow the state party to nominate her replacement. They also ask Cheney to return donations made to her campaign.
Cheney is Wyoming's at-large representative in the House. And since 70 percent of Wyoming voters cast their ballots for President Trump, it's safe to say Cheney's constituents weren't thrilled when their representative led a small group of House Republicans in voting for impeachment. In fact, Wyoming Republicans were furious.
Following the vote, the Wyoming Republican Party said in a statement that never before has the party seen "this type of an outcry from our fellow Republicans." According to the statement, "the anger and frustration" is "palpable in the comments" the party received. The statement said the party believes it's important for elected officials to respect and represent their constituents and called Cheney's vote to impeach Trump a "true travesty for Wyoming and the country."
In an effort to share just some of the overwhelming feedback with Cheney, the party summarized some of the comments they received from angry Republicans: Cheney denied President Trump due process, she judged "evidence" before it was presented and available, she ignored Trump's comments asking his supporters to protest "peacefully," she sided with Democrats who egged on leftists rioters for months last year, aligned herself with leftists skewing facts about the Capitol riot, allowed herself to be used by Democrats to smear the entire conservative movement, and allowed another impeachment circus to distract Congress from representing the interests that truly matter to the people of Wyoming.
Cheney is now facing a primary challenge in the form of Wyoming GOP Sen. Anthony Bouchard. Several of the ten Republicans who joined Cheney in voting for impeachment have similarly been censored or find themselves facing new primary opponents.