MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming pledged Thursday to stop Donald Trump from becoming president again during an appearance at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
Asked by WDIV host Devin Scillian whether she would run for president in 2024, she said she is “not making any announcements here today.”
But she added: “I am really focused on making sure that Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office again.”
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the former president in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
She was a keynote speaker Thursday at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s policy conference on Mackinac Island, an annual gathering of business, government, education and philanthropic leaders that typically attracts high-profile political figures.
She was one of ten Republicans in the House — including former GOP Michigan Reps. Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids and Fred Upton of St. Joseph — to vote to impeach Trump for inciting the riot and was one of the leaders of a House panel that investigated what happened. She lost her re-election bid to a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in 2022.
Cheney has previously teased that she may consider a presidential run in 2024, but has not launched a campaign. In 2022, shortly after losing her primary election, she started a leadership political action committee that has since released TV ads warning of the “risk” Trump poses to America.
“I’m going to continue to do everything I can both to ensure (Trump is not re-elected), also to ensure that other election deniers are not elected,” she said. “I think that is just so hugely important. When we put people in positions of authority who deny the sanctity of our elections, we really do put the republic at risk.”
Earlier this year, the Michigan Republican Party elected failed Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo as its chair. Both Karamo and the party’s second choice, failed Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno, have steadfastly denied that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.
Cheney likened what’s happening in the Michigan Republican Party to the evolution of the state party in Wyoming, where the chair is allegedly affiliated with the Oath Keepers organization, according to a whistleblower document reported by the Casper Star-Tribune.
“We as Republicans have to reject that,” she said, adding that candidates with similar ideologies are running for state and federal office as well as for school boards and precinct delegate seats. “They have to be resisted at every stage of that effort.”
Cheney endorsed Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Lansing during the 2022 midterm elections, when she faced a tight race against former Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett of Charlotte, who said he would have voted to certify the results but also said he had “legitimate concerns” about the 2020 election. Cheney said it’s important to support candidates “we know will defend the Constitution.”
Cheney, who considers herself a conservative, also said the 2024 election “could” support a viable third party candidate as an alternative to incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and Trump if they become the major party nominees.
“The tectonic plates of our politics are shifting, and they’re shifting because the peril is so real,” she said.
Asked whether she could see herself leading a third party effort, Cheney hesitated before saying: “I think that we have to have good people. And I don’t know yet what that is going to look like… We’ll see what happens, but I’m not going to rule it out.”
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