Cheney wants conservatives who would rather stay out of the fight between Vice President Harris and Trump to follow her lead: Vote for the Democrat.
"Donald Trump, no matter what your policy views are — no matter if you are a conservative Republican or not—Donald Trump cannot be trusted with power," she said Wednesday during an event at Duke University. “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Cheney, who has been one of Trump’s most prominent critics since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, had not previously disclosed how she planned to cast her own November ballot. But the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney (R) also turned the Wednesday remarks into a headline-grabbing direct plea to Republican voters who are conflicted about the Harris-Trump match-up.
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this.”
“We have a duty to put our country and our Constitution above partisanship,” she said.
The announcement came a day after former Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who represented the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania for a dozen years, said during an appearance on CNBC that he doesn't plan to vote for either candidate.
“I acknowledge that the outcome is a binary situation, but my choice is not,” he said. “It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice for president."
Cheney’s remarks also came in a state – North Carolina – that could hold major implications for the election outcome.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report last week moved North Carolina from Trump’s favor to the "toss up" list. Cook analyst Amy Walter wrote in a memo on the shift that Biden had not made significant headway in North Carolina before leaving the race but Harris's entry jolted the campaign and made the race "more competitive than ever" in the Tar Heel State.
Trump, who carried North Carolina the past two elections, is scheduled to speak at a Fraternal Order of Police event in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday.
But it remains to be seen how much sway Cheney will have on the small sliver of voters who remain on the fence with two months until Election Day. A USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll in August found that about 1 in 10 likely voters surveyed said they would be open to changing their preference in the race or are undecided.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in July 2022, 33 percent of voters surveyed nationally had a favorable opinion of Cheney, while 35 percent viewed her unfavorably.
The poll was conducted as a special House committee held a series of televised hearings on the Capitol riot. Cheney was vice chairwoman and one of two Republicans on the panel. The other Republican, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), has also endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
The Ipsos poll found Democrats were more likely to view Cheney in a favorable light (53 percent) while about half of Republicans (51 percent) said they had an unfavorable view of her. More than a third of independent voters (38 percent) surveyed said they had never heard of Cheney.
Cheney joins a growing cadre of Republicans who, like Kinzinger, have transferred their anti-Trump views into votes for Harris.
Republican Voters Against Trump recently launched an $11.5 million ad buy in key swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – and in Nebraska’s competitive 2nd Congressional District, which determines one of the state's three Electoral College votes.
"Liz is of course correct. We don’t have the luxury of writing in names. Spoken like someone who’s doing a clear-eyed threat assessment and acting accordingly," Republican Voters Against Trump executive director Sarah Longwell posted on social media along with a video of Cheney's remarks at the Duke event. "Liz is right. Be like Liz."
The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on the potential impact of Cheney's announcement. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to The Associated Press on Wednesday: “Who is Liz Cheney and what does she do?”
Harris has made significant gains on Trump since President Biden ended his reelection campaign in July. According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling average, Harris leads Trump 49.7 percent to 45.6 percent nationally. Forecasters have projected a 56 percent chance of a Harris win, though neither candidate has a clear hold on the 270 votes needed to secure the White House.
