Liz Cheney Says She’s Not Ruling Out 2024 Presidential Run

Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney drew headlines on Sunday with the comment.

Liz Cheney is seen in a 2022 file photo. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Republican who helped lead the U.S. House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol, said in an interview broadcast on Oct. 22 that she isn’t ruling out a 2024 presidential bid.

During CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper told Ms. Cheney that it was likely that former President Donald Trump would be the GOP nominee, to which she ultimately responded that “he cannot be the next president.” She then criticized the former president, who leads in current polls by about 40 percentage points on average.

Later, Mr. Tapper asked her, “You’re not ruling out a presidential run?”

“No, I’m not,” said Ms. Cheney, the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney; She didn’t elaborate.

It’s likely that she would garner little support among Republican voters, as other anti-Trump GOP presidential candidates—such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson—have failed to gain significant traction in the polls.

Previously, she told news outlets that she wouldn’t run for president if she thought it would help President Trump win the 2024 race, including by initiating an independent presidential bid that might take votes from President Joe Biden.

Ms. Cheney appeared also for an interview with CBS News.

“Well, what I am doing right now, what I will continue to do, is very much focus on making sure that we get people elected at all levels, who are serious,” she said, while not directly addressing the presidential race.

“People who believe in the Constitution. I think we’re at a moment in this nation where we certainly have seen we face significant threats internationally. We’ve got Iran, Russia, North Korea, China, arrayed against us. This is a threat atmosphere that we have not seen, certainly since the end of World War II.”

As one of President Trump’s most vocal critics, Ms. Cheney’s criticism of his claims about the 2020 election led to her ouster from her Republican leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference in the House. She was replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who supports the former president.

In the 2022 Wyoming Republican primary for the state’s lone House seat, she lost to Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) by about 28 percentage points.

After she lost the congressional primary, President Trump said Ms. Cheney “should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others.”

Meanwhile, because of her work on the Jan. 6 panel, Ms. Cheney was censured by the Republican National Committee in 2022, after her membership in the Wyoming Republican Party was revoked.

If Ms. Cheney does ultimately try to run for president, Wyoming voters are probably unlikely to cast ballots for her.

“We like Trump. She tried to impeach Trump,” Cheyenne voter Chester Barkell told The Associated Press last year. “I don’t trust Liz Cheney.”

Republican voter Dan Winder from Jackson said he felt betrayed by his congresswoman.

“Over 70 percent of the state of Wyoming voted Republican in the last presidential election and she turned right around and voted against us,” Mr. Winder, a hotel manager, said. “She was our representative, not her own.”

As for President Trump, an aggregate of polls shows that his momentum hasn’t slowed. He currently draws 59.1 percent of Republican voters’ support, compared with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 12.8 percent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 7.8 percent, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s 5.3 percent, former Vice President Mike Pence’s 3.8 percent, and Mr. Christie’s 2.6 percent.

Ms. Cheney is now working as professor of politics at the University of Virginia and has been working on a book that’s slated for release in December.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.