House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) survived a leadership challenge Wednesday night after most Republicans voted to keep her as the third-ranking House Republican.
The House Republican Conference held a secret ballot on whether the House GOP should oust Cheney.
Sixty-one House Republicans voted to oust her, 145 Republicans voted to keep her, and one Republican voted present.
The vote came after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spoke in defense of Cheney.
The House GOP Conference ballot was held because many House conservatives led a movement to remove Cheney as the third-ranking Republican after she announced that she would vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
“I won’t apologize for the vote,” Cheney told the House Republican Conference.
Republicans such as Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) circulated a petition to remove her as the House GOP chair.
Rosendale said in a statement after the vote, “The Conference has spoken, and it’s time for Republicans to unify to take back the majority. I will do my part to achieve that goal.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) even traveled to Wyoming to urge her constituents to primary her.
During his Wyoming rally, Gaetz noted that Cheney had impeded the Trump America First agenda and sold out to the “forever war machine.”
Gaetz and other House conservatives such as Biggs and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) opposed Cheney’s efforts to add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would tie the president’s hands from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
Gaetz also noted that Cheney had supported Massie’s primary opponent, which aroused many House conservatives’ anger.
Although Cheney may have survived the House conservatives’ move to oust her as the House GOP chair, she still faces problems in her home state.
A recent poll found that her political support has collapsed by more than double digits since she announced that she would vote to impeach Trump.
The survey found that 73 percent of Republicans in the deep-red state viewed her unfavorably, and 62 percent of all voters have a negative image of her.
In contrast, only 10 percent of GOP voters and 13 percent of all voters would vote to reelect her.
The poll also found that she trails state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who announced a campaign against her, by 30 points.
“Liz Cheney’s decision to vote to impeach President Trump makes her extremely vulnerable,” Trump’s pollster John McLaughlin wrote. “It is evident her ratings are in bad shape among general election voters and have collapsed among Republicans and Trump voters.”
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