Former Rep. Liz Cheney said she is considering running for president in 2024 in an attempt to make sure former President Donald Trump doesn’t get elected to a second term.
“I certainly hope to play a role in helping to ensure that the country has … a new, fully conservative party,” the Wyoming Republican told USA Today in an interview released Tuesday. “And so whether that means restoring the current Republican Party, which … looks like a very difficult if not impossible task, or setting up a new party, I do hope to be involved and engaged in that.”
Democrats have warned that third-party candidates would potentially act as a spoiler and cause President Biden to lose in 2024.
Ms. Cheney said the calculation of whether she would take votes away from Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden would drive her decision about entering the race.
However, she has toyed with joining a bipartisan ticket, like what the group No Labels has proposed. The group has been working toward gaining access to ballots in at least 10 states for a potential third-party ticket.
“I think that the situation that we’re in is so grave, and the politics of the moment require independents and Republicans and Democrats coming together in a way that can help form a new coalition, so that may well be a third-party option,” she said.
SEE ALSO: Haley leads Biden, but loses badly to Trump, new poll shows
Ms. Cheney, who is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has been one of the most outspoken GOP critics of Mr. Trump. She was one of the nine House Republicans who voted to impeach him a week after Jan. 6. She also served as vice chair on the House select committee that investigated the event.
She lost reelection in the Republican primary last year to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, who went on to win the seat in the general election.
One of her main focuses is urging Republicans to elect Democrats to the House and Senate because she feels that House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and the GOP conference are not trustworthy enough to legitimize the results of the next election if it comes to that.
“It’s not a position that I’ve arrived at lightly,” she said.
She also said one of her top priorities is to protect the Constitution by defeating Mr. Trump.
“The president who’s willing to ignore the ruling of the courts, the president who’s willing to ignore the guardrails of our democracy is an existential threat,” she said.
Ms. Cheney has been promoting her new book “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning.” In the book, she writes about the Republican Party in the Trump era and about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
She has warned that the U.S. is “sleepwalking into dictatorship” with Mr. Trump.
“People who say, ‘Well, if he’s elected, it’s not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances’ don’t fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted,” she recently said on CBS News.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.