Trump to endorse challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney, reports say



Former President Donald Trump is reportedly ready to endorse a primary challenger against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), his most prominent Republican critic in the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to Politico and the Associated Press, Trump will endorse attorney Harriet Hageman against Cheney, anonymous sources familiar with his decision said. His support may unite Republican opposition to Cheney behind one challenger, increasing the chances that Hageman emerges victorious from the field of at least 8 candidates vying to defeat Cheney for the GOP nomination for Wyoming's at-large Congressional District.

Cheney, formerly the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress, drew Trump's ire and the GOP base's fury by voting to impeach the former president over his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. In the aftermath of her vote, House Republicans voted to remove Cheney from GOP leadership for being insufficiently supportive of Trump and for criticizing his unproven claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. She has never apologized for her vote nor has she stopped voicing strong opposition to Trump.

In July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appointed Cheney to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, a role which Cheney accepted against the wishes of Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Trump has called Cheney a "loser RINO," vowing to support a candidate to defeat her in the Republican primary. He reportedly met with several candidates running against Cheney or exploring the option to do so before settling on Hageman.

"He interviewed a lot of people, and when it was done, it was clear she's in a class of her own," said one Republican familiar with Trump's selection process.

Hageman stepped down as the Wyoming GOP's national committeewoman Tuesday in preparation for her run against Cheney. In her resignation letter, she praised state party officials for voting to censure Cheney over the impeachment vote.

"By censuring Rep. Liz Cheney we sent the strong message that we expect our elected officials to respect the views and values of the people who elected them. Accountability is key and I am proud of our party for demanding it," Hageman wrote.

Trump's expected endorsement of Hageman would be the latest in a spate of endorsements he's made against incumbent Republican lawmakers seen as insufficiently supportive of the former president. Trump on Tuesday endorsed Michigan state lawmaker Steve Carra in his bid to unseat longtime incumbent Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who also voted for impeachment. A week before, Trump endorsed challengers to Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), two more Republicans who voted for impeachment.


Report: 'Hillbilly Elegy' author J.D. Vance tells friends and colleagues he's running for US Senate seat in Ohio



"Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance is reportedly telling his friends and colleagues that he will run as a Republican for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022, competing to win the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

Vance, a 36-year-old Marine Corps veteran, graduate of Yale Law School, and self-made venture capitalist resigned on Wednesday from the board of AppHarvest, a tomato grower based in Moorehead, Kentucky. According to a report from Axios, he told the other directors on the board that he is likely to run for Senate and did not want the company to become politicized after he launches his campaign.

Axios reported the best-selling author will seek to define himself as a bridge between former President Donald Trump's populist Make America Great Again movement and traditional establishment Republicans. He reportedly met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago recently along with supporter and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel to discuss his prospective campaign.

A self-described conservative and contributor at National Review, Vance rose to prominence in 2016 with the release of "Hillbilly Elegy," a memoir that recounted his childhood upbringing in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. The communities he was raised in and wrote about face intergenerational problems of poverty, violence, and social decline, problems Vance has dedicated his professional career to helping to alleviate.

He began his career as a venture capitalist with Mithril Capital, a firm cofounded by Peter Thiel and Ajay Royan. In 2017, Vance became a partner at AOL founder Steve Case's firm Revolution LLC, which funds startup companies in parts of the country typically ignored by Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Two years later in 2019 he co-founded a venture capital firm called Narya — named for a magical ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's writings that has the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair — which is based in Ohio.

As a writer and public speaker, Vance often calls attention to the so-called forgotten Americans Trump spoke up for in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns for president. In a recent interview with the Daily Wire, Vance said that as someone who rose out of poverty through a combination of luck and hard work, he feels a duty to help others do the same.

"These issues are very close to my heart," Vance said. "At a very fundamental level, I want people to be able to achieve a middle class lifestyle if they're hardworking, and for a lot of folks right now, it's pretty hard to get by. It's hard for complicated reasons; we've seen the decimation of the manufacturing base in Ohio and other parts of the country. I do think that these are really important problems — whether you work on them in the private sector or in the public, I certainly feel that it's my obligation to give a little bit back. I mean, I've had a pretty fortunate life, here. I came from pretty tough circumstances, was raised by my grandparents, got to where I am now through some combination of luck and hard work and definitely feel a little bit like I'm obligated to at least try to solve some of these problems, though it's definitely not just one person's effort. "

Vance believes the Republican Party needs to shape its agenda around immigration, trade policy, and pro-family policies to rebuild American's manufacturing base and give workers the opportunity to rise and build a vibrant middle-class.

He is also an outspoken critic of Big Tech, which he has referred to as an "oligarchy," and called for raising corporate taxes and doing "whatever else is necessary to fight these goons."

At this very moment there are companies (big and small) paying good wages to American workers, investing in their c… https://t.co/d2oNRpAvMM
— J.D. Vance (@J.D. Vance)1618256459.0
Establishment Republican apologies for our oligarchy should always come with the following disclaimer: “Big Tech pays my salary.”
— J.D. Vance (@J.D. Vance)1618322725.0

The Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate is already crowded, with at least 10 Republican candidates vying for the GOP nomination. Prominent candidates include former Ohio GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken, who is backed by several establishment Republican figures in Ohio, and former two-term state treasurer Josh Mandel, who unsuccessfully ran for Senate against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in 2012 and ran again in 2018 before exiting the race citing his now ex-wife's health.

Horowitz: The 2022 primaries should begin today



It has nothing to do with Trump, impeachment, or what happened at the Capitol last week. This problem has been festering for years.

How many Republicans are giving voice to your concerns at either the federal or state levels? How many of them are acting against the impending government-corporate crushing of conservatives, corona fascism, open borders, high crime, or China, just to name a few issues? If you can't fill up a sticky note with names, you know we have a serious problem.

I have personally long believed the Republican Party is irremediably broken. We needed a new party decades ago. With the exception of a random smattering of patriots elected here and there — usually to lower offices and never in leadership positions — Republican elected officials don't share our values on most issues and won't fight for us in a meaningful way on a single issue. Contrast that to Democrats, where every member is a pedal-to-the-metal leftist and is willing to fight for their cause in word and in action.

Joe Manchin, the Democrats' weakest member elected deep in enemy territory, is exponentially more in line with the party's views than Republican members elected in friendly territory are in synch with the GOP platform. The GOP used to be a mere speed bump in front of the train of socialism; now it greases the skids for anarchy and tyranny. The Republicans are the human shield of the Democrat Party, from behind which they can shoot while using the fake opposition of the GOP to deflect blame for their policies.

Nonetheless, the entire "conservative movement" industry has sunk its teeth into this party and will never let go no matter how much they are told they are not welcome. They always say we must support Republicans no matter what and that the time to fight traitorous Republicans is in the primaries. Well, I've been doing that for years, and those fights have been awfully lonely. The primary season begins now. Every conservative with a megaphone, a pen, and a wallet should be focusing on electing state officials who will create sanctuaries for our values and liberties in red states, in addition to those who will fight at the federal level.

Here is a list of governors up for re-election or open seats in winnable states for conservatives that will create immediate opportunities for conservatives to push change at the state level:

Incumbent Republicans Running for Re-election

  • Kay Ivey – Alabama
  • Mike Dunleavy – Alaska
  • Ron DeSantis – Florida
  • Brian Kemp – Georgia
  • Brad Little – Idaho
  • Kim Reynolds – Iowa
  • Chris Sununu – New Hampshire
  • Mike DeWine – Ohio
  • Kevin Stitt – Oklahoma
  • Henry McMaster – South Carolina
  • Kristi Noem – South Dakota
  • Bill Lee – Tennessee
  • Greg Abbott – Texas
  • Mark Gordon – Wyoming

Term-limited Republicans

  • Doug Ducey – Arizona
  • Asa Hutchinson – Arkansas
  • Pete Ricketts – Nebraska

Potentially vulnerable Democrats

  • Laura Kelly – Kansas
  • Janet Mills – Maine
  • Gretchen Whitmer – Michigan
  • Tim Walz – Minnesota
  • Steve Sisolak – Nevada
  • Michelle Lujan Grisham – New Mexico
  • Tom Wolf – Pennsylvania
  • Tony Evers – Wisconsin

Start with the list of incumbent Republicans seeking re-election. Ask yourself how many of them deserve to be re-nominated. How many of them are actively fighting corona fascism? How many of them are downright implementing it with as much enthusiasm as the left? How many of them are with us on the issues of our time? You'd be hard pressed to find more than two or three of them, including in the reddest states in America. Between those governorships and the three open, term-limited seats, patriots have the opportunity to flip at least 10 governorships just in the states with current liberal Republican governors. Then there are eight Democrat governors in states that should be very competitive for us in a midterm with Democrats in power at the federal level.

Now let's take a look at the GOP senators up for re-election:

  • Richard Shelby – Alabama
  • Lisa Murkowski – Alaska
  • John Boozman – Arkansas
  • Marco Rubio – Florida
  • Mike Crapo – Idaho
  • Todd Young – Indiana
  • Chuck Grassley – Iowa
  • Jerry Moran – Kansas
  • Rand Paul – Kentucky
  • John Kennedy – Louisiana
  • Roy Blunt – Missouri
  • Richard Burr – North Carolina
  • John Hoeven – North Dakota
  • Rob Portman – Ohio
  • James Lankford – Oklahoma
  • Pat Toomey – Pennsylvania (retiring)
  • Tim Scott – South Carolina
  • John Thune – South Dakota
  • Mike Lee – Utah
  • Ron Johnson – Wisconsin

We have 20 Republicans up for re-election in states that should all be winnable in 2022. How many of them do you think represent We the People? You will have a hard time finding more than a few. Only one hand is needed to count them, and that is being generous.

Now multiply this dynamic at the local level, where there are numerous Republican school board members, county commissioners, and state legislators who are also working for the other side. We are the majority opinion among Republicans, yet we are a tiny minority of elected Republicans. This has disenfranchised red America, because there is ostensibly one oligarchy in power that simply goes by two different names.

Until and unless we start a new party or finally unite to run an entirely new slate of candidates in nearly every primary, it is worthless to continue focusing on the Democrats. Trump carried 83% of the counties. Most of them, by next election, should easily have solid patriots as the GOP nominees for sheriff, county commissioners, school board, county prosecutor, and county judge. Have you ever found a blue county where a single elected official is not a full-throated Marxist? Well, that is how all the red county officials should look — but in reverse.