AP Photo/Mead Gruver, File
- Republican Harriet Hageman, during a recent New York Times interview, couldn’t say who won the 2020 presidential election.
- “I don’t know the answer,” the GOP House candidate told the newspaper during the conversation.
- Hageman is running against Liz Cheney, who has been castigated by many Republicans for rejecting Trump’s election claims.
The leading Republican challenging Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming for the party’s primary told The New York Times during an interview this week that she was unsure who lawfully won the 2020 presidential election.
Harriet Hageman, a water rights attorney who has been enthusiastically endorsed by former President Donald Trump, could not verify the legitimate victor of the election when asked during an interview with the newspaper on Wednesday.
“I don’t know the answer,” she told The Times.
Hageman’s position reflects that of many Republicans who have continued to doubt the veracity of the 2020 election.
Cheney, who Hageman hopes to oust in the GOP primary, has received heated criticism from within her party for her rejection of Trump’s debunked election claims, pointing to the lack of verifiable evidence that would support his longtime accusations of voter fraud.
The congresswoman has long maintained that the January 6 insurrection was an affront to the rule of law — as it disrupted the Electoral College certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory and sent lawmakers fleeing to secure spaces away from the mayhem that was unfolding at the US Capitol building.
In Cheney’s view, Trump abdicated his commitment to the secure and peaceful transfer of power, threatening the stability of the country.
Her vote to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection for his role on January 6 — along with her continued criticism of his election claims — led to her removal as the House Republican Conference Chair last year.
Despite boasting a solidly conservative voting record, Cheney’s vocal admonishment of Trump — who won 70 percent of the vote in the 2020 presidential election in Wyoming — long attracted the ire of the former president and his supporters.
Hageman is one of several candidates running in the Republican primary against Cheney, but she is the best-funded challenger.
She has raised $443,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021, but her total was dwarfed by Cheney’s $2.04 million quarterly haul, according to documents filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
However, while 43% of Hageman’s fourth-quarter donors came from Wyoming, only 1.3% of Cheney’s quarterly contributions came from in-state, according to WyoFile.
Hageman has also cultivated a significant amount of grassroots support that was boosted by Trump’s endorsement.
The results of a straw poll conducted last month by the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee revealed 59 votes for Hageman, while Cheney won six votes, with two votes for state Sen. Anthony Bouchard and one vote for retired US Army colonel Denton Knapp, according to The Casper Star-Tribune.
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