After losing the Wyoming congressional primary by nearly 40 points last week to U.S. Congresswoman-elect Harriet Hageman, Liz Cheney compared herself to President Abraham Lincoln and strongly implied she plans to run for the White House.
Liz Cheney likens herself to Abraham Lincoln because he also lost elections. pic.twitter.com/7kDFiGJmFO
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 17, 2022
During an interview with The Today Show, Cheney was pushed into admitting she is strongly considering a run and will do everything she can to keep President Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.
“I’ll make a decision in the coming months.” — Rep. Liz Cheney said about possibly running for President. pic.twitter.com/b2SjAYVN2W
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 17, 2022
But new polling from YahooNews/YouGov shows a Cheney run would actually help Trump win, backfiring on her plans.
The survey of 1,563 U.S. adults was conducted from Aug. 18 to 22 — immediately after Cheney lost last Tuesday’s Wyoming House primary to a Trump-backed challenger by nearly 40 percentage points.
It found that if the 2024 election were held today — and if it were a one-on-one rematch between President Biden and Trump — Biden would lead by 4 points among registered voters, 46% to 42%.
But in a three-way race with Cheney on the ballot as an independent, Trump would suddenly vault to an 8-point lead over Biden, 40% to 32%.
In that scenario, Cheney trails with just 11% of the vote. The problem for Biden is that nearly all of Cheney’s votes come at his expense — and there are enough of them, in theory, to put Trump over the top.