As Liz Cheney’s bid to win reelection to a fourth term as Wyoming’s sole member of the House continues to falter among voters, high-dollar Democrat donors are coming to her rescue financially.
The New York Times reported that film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King) is supporting Cheney’s failing effort. Said Katzenberg:
We agree on little, if anything. But she has done something that very, very few people in history have done, which is, she’s put her country over party and politics to stand in defense of our Constitution.
Katzenberg didn’t reveal just how much money he has given to Cheney, but her campaign coffers presently exceed $10 million, dwarfing amounts her other three Republican opponents have raised for their primary bids.
Democrat political consultant Dmitri Mehlhorn, who advises a number of wealthy Democrat donors, said that “Cheney is the most important person in America right now.” Accordingly, he has persuaded LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman to support Cheney’s failing bid.
Hoffman joined Seth Klarman, who runs the Boston-based hedge fund Baupost Group, in supporting Cheney. On Tuesday, he is holding an online fundraiser for her, coinciding with the next “revelation” from Cheney’s January 6 investigation committee which she co-chairs.
Klarman explained his support in an emailed invitation to his network of Democrat donors:
I strongly support Congresswoman Cheney’s bid for reelection, as we share a deep commitment to protecting American democracy and the rule of law.
I’m resolved to do everything possible to send a strong message by keeping her in Congress. We need to stand behind Liz and send a rebuke to the most extreme factions in the Republican Party.
If we don’t save democracy, everything else goes to hell.
Melhorn sings the same tune, i.e., that Cheney is his enemy in general but on this issue — Donald Trump — they are joined at the hip. “Liz Cheney is our enemy, so to speak, on every other issue. But on this issue, she is so aligned with us.”
That “issue” has been massaged into “the peaceful transfer of power,” which Trump is alleged to have threatened with his support of January 6 protestors. Explained Melhorn:
Our theory is that, if that is the dividing line — that all politics as about … the peaceful transfer of power, or not — the governing coalition will be the peaceful transfer of power coalition.
And if you want that, you rally around Liz Cheney, who is making it the most important issue personally.
Other wealthy Democrats supporting Cheney’s bid include Jane Fraser, CEO of megabank Citigroup.
In a last-ditch effort to salvage her campaign, Cheney is spending some of that $10 million on a mass mailer to Democrats and Independents in Wyoming with instructions on how to change party affiliation before the August 16 primary so they can vote for her as Republicans.
This is likely only to offend Republicans, who outnumber Democrats by 71 percent to 15 percent. Even if every Democrat and Independent, unaffiliated, Libertarian, and Constitution Party voter were to change affiliation at the last minute, Cheney would lose overwhelmingly in the August primary anyway.
Cheney has further offended Wyoming Republicans by showing up at a White House invitation-only televised Medal of Freedom event last Thursday. As USA Today noted, “It’s … unheard of for a Republican lawmaker in the middle of a bruising primary fight to be seen at a high-profile White House event of a Democratic president.” Especially one where the White House occupant is held in such low esteem across the land, and especially in Wyoming.
Cheney sealed her fate last week during a debate with her three Republican primary opponents, saying:
If we embrace the lies of Donald Trump, if we tell the people of Wyoming something that is not true, we will soon find ourselves without the structure and the basis and framework of our constitutional republic.
The latest polls show Cheney’s opponent Harriet Hageman leading the incumbent by 29 points, while a Cygnal survey shows that barely one quarter of Wyoming voters have a favorable opinion of Cheney.
The Republican primary is set for Tuesday, August 16.
Related article:
Liz Cheney Launches Reelection Campaign in the Face of Negative Polling
