Wyoming and Alaska primaries

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who since the insurrection at the Capitol has become the Republican Party’s most forceful critic of former President Donald Trump, was ousted from her House seat by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, CNN projected Tuesday.

In Alaska, voters were casting ballots in another race the former President is focused on, with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski squaring off in the first of what’s likely to be two rounds against the Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, is attempting a political comeback in a special election for the state’s lone House seat.

Here are some top takeaways from Tuesday’s contests in Wyoming and Alaska:

Trump’s intra-party rivals: Trump and his allies have spent the spring and summer turning Republican primaries across the political map into bitter fights in which loyalty to the former President was the central factor.

He lost some high-profile battles, including in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger held off Trump-back challengers.

But in most open-seat races, Trump’s candidates triumphed. And on Tuesday in Wyoming, Trump, who had endorsed Hageman on the day she entered the race against Cheney, claimed his biggest victory yet.

Cheney chose to go down fighting: In the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary, Cheney insisted she was trying to win.

But her strategy — attempting to convince the Republican electorate in a state the former President won by a margin of 43 percentage points in 2020 to turn on him — suggests she’d made a different choice: to go down swinging.

Her election night event, on a ranch in Jackson Hole with the sun setting over the Grand Tetons in the background, didn’t feature any television screens for supporters to watch results tabulated in a race Cheney was all but certain to lose.

She told supporters that she could have cozied up to Trump to do what she’d done in the primary two years earlier: win with 73% of the vote. “That was a path I could not and would not take,” Cheney said. “No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty.”

Cheney’s decision to use the spotlight of her high-profile House primary to tee off on Trump was never a winning one in Wyoming. But it did endear her to a segment of anti-Trump donors and position her as the GOP’s most strident critic of Trump.

What’s next for Cheney? The morning after her defeat in the Wyoming GOP House primary, the three-term congresswoman told the “Today” show that she is “thinking about” running for president and will make a decision in “the coming months.”

“I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning,” she told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.

Cheney used her concession speech to preview a continued fight against Trump, without laying out exactly what that means.

“I have said since January 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office, and I mean it. This is a fight for all of us, together,” she said. “I’m a conservative Republican. … But I love my country more. So I ask you tonight to join me: As we leave here, let us resolve that we will stand together, Republicans, Democrats and independents, against those who would destroy our republic.”

As she left the stage, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared over the event’s speakers.

Overnight, the Cheney campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee creating a leadership PAC to be called “The Great Task.”

This is the first of several next steps from Cheney, an adviser tells CNN, as she starts to put her election night speech from Wyoming into action and opens a new chapter in the wake of her defeat in her congressional seat.

Waiting on Alaska results — but how long? Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee who has not run for office since then, is attempting a political comeback in the special election to fill the remaining months of the late Rep. Don Young’s House term.

But it will take weeks to sort out whether she wins the runoff election against fellow Republican businessman Nick Begich III, Democratic former state lawmaker Mary Peltola and Republican Tara Sweeney, who previously served as assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the US Department of the Interior.

The special election is Alaska’s first using the state’s new ranked choice voting system. CNN projected that none of the three candidates will receive more than 50% of the vote in the first round, meaning that the state will tabulate second-choice votes on Aug. 31.

Read more takeaways here.

Alaska’s special election to fill the late Rep. Don Young’s House seat won’t be decided anytime soon: ballots will continue arriving and being counted for more than a week, and the state won’t tabulate its ranked-choice results until Aug. 31. 

But the biggest surprise in the early results in Wednesday’s early morning hours was the strong showing by Democratic former state lawmaker Mary Peltola, who is competing against two Republicans, former Gov. Sarah Palin and businessman Nick Begich III. 

CNN projected earlier tonight that no candidate will reach a majority of first choice votes and that the race will therefore head to ranked choice voting tabulation.

Peltola’s chances in the special election got a major boost when Al Gross, an independent who was one of the four candidates to advance to the runoff, dropped out of the race. Alaska elections officials did not replace him on the ballot, which meant Democratic votes would be funneled almost entirely to Peltola, while two Republicans battled each other.

Peltola, a salmon advocate from the western Alaska bush — a region not connected by road with the rest of the state — is seeking to become the first Alaska Native elected to Congress. 

“I just think it’s high time that an Alaska Native be part of our congressional delegation,” she told CNN in a June interview.

She’s also someone with relationships across party lines, including with the family of Young, who held Alaska’s at-large House seat for 49 years before his death in March. 

Peltola’s father and Young taught school together decades ago, before Young was elected to Congress, she said in June. When she was attending high school in Pennsylvania, she once spent Thanksgiving with Young’s family on the East Coast. 

“Everybody in Alaska had some kind of relationship with Don Young,” Peltola said in June. “It’s just a matter of fact. In Alaska, because our state is so small in population, we’re all connected, and it’s like one degree of separation, practically.”

Peltola aligns with Democrats on most major issues, including abortion rights. But she also touted her record working with Republicans in the state legislature, where she served from 1999 until 2009, overlapping at the end of her tenure with Palin’s governorship. 

“I definitely am not a Democrat who goes 100% with the party platform on every issue. That is not the way I see myself, and that was very evident in the 10 years I spent in the state House,” she said.

The results of the Alaska special general election to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term remain uncertain, as CNN projects none of the candidates on the ballot topped 50% on Tuesday — a necessary feat given the state’s new ranked choice voting rules.

The special general election, which was triggered by Young’s death, marks the first time that Alaska is using ranked choice voting — a process that asks voters to rank their preferred candidates, with the votes for the lowest-finishing candidates coming into play only if no one tops 50%. CNN projected that no candidate crossed that threshold, which means it will be a while until the winner is determined, with the ranked choice voting tabulation scheduled to begin on Aug. 31.

The race to determine who will fill the remainder of Young’s term pits former Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee who has not appeared on a ballot since that election loss, against Nick Begich III, who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Democratic Alaska political family, and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola.

All three candidates and independent Al Gross advanced to the August special general election after a June nonpartisan special primary, but Gross withdrew from the race and encouraged his supporters to back Peltola.

No matter who wins the special general election to fill the remainder of Young’s term, there will be a regular general election, which will also use ranked choice voting, in November to determine who will hold the seat in the next Congress.

Palin, Begich and Peltola were also among the candidates on the ballot for the primary election on Tuesday. All three will advance to the November election, CNN projects, with a fourth candidate to be determined.

Read more about the race here.

Republican Sarah Palin, Republican Nick Begich III and Democrat Mary Peltola will advance to the November election in Alaska’s race for the state’s lone House seat, CNN projects. The fall election will decide who will win the seat for the next full term.

A fourth candidate is yet to be determined. Under Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system, the top four finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

The three candidates are also running in a special election to fill the remainder of the House seat, which has been vacant since Rep. Don Young’s death in March.

Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, was backed by former President Donald Trump earlier this year. Begich won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family. Peltola is a former Democratic state representative.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski will advance to the November general election, CNN projects, along with the Trump-backed former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka, following the state’s nonpartisan primary.

Under Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system, the top four finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Retired educator Patricia Chesbro, who is endorsed by Alaska’s Democratic Party, will also advance to the November contest, CNN projects.

CNN has not yet projected a fourth winner.

Given the new voting procedure, which Alaskans voted on in 2020, Murkowski avoided a partisan primary contest with Tshibaka and was able to survive a first-round showdown.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Tshibaka last year, pledging to campaign against Murkowski, the only one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial who is up for reelection this year. The former President traveled to Alaska to hold a rally for Tshibaka in July.

Murkowski’s family has held her Senate seat for more than four decades. Her father, Frank Murkowski, was elected to the Senate in 1980 and appointed his daughter to fill his seat in 2002 when he was elected governor.

More background: Murkowski has held the seat since, winning her most dramatic victory in 2010, when she lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller but then became only the second person ever (after Strom Thurmond in 1954) to win a Senate seat via a write-in campaign. Moderate on issues like abortion, Murkowski has beat back candidates from the right before. 

But her criticism of Trump could make her vulnerable to Tshibaka in November. Murkowski did not vote for the former President in 2020 and told The Hill she wrote in someone else who lost. Murkowski was censured by the Alaska Republican Party in a resolution following her vote to impeach Trump.

Tshibaka launched her campaign last year, pitching the election as an outsider versus a powerful, longtime insider.

Before joining Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration, Tshibaka worked in the offices of the inspector general for the US Postal Service, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. Tshibaka acknowledged she worked in Washington, DC but “fought to expose waste and fraud in government,” seeking to draw a contrast with Murkowski’s extensive experience in the Capitol. 

The November election will be held using ranked choice voting.

Incumbent Republican Mike Dunleavy, Democrat Les Gara and independent Bill Walker will advance to the November election in Alaska’s race for governor, CNN projects.

A fourth candidate is yet to be determined. Under Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system, the top four finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Its 1 a.m. ET and final polls are closing across Alaska. Some polls in the state closed earlier at 12 a.m. ET.

Here are the key races we are tracking:

The state is hosting a special election to fill the state’s at large House seat, which has been vacant since Rep. Don Young’s death in March. Three candidates, including former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, are on the ballot, with the winner decided by ranked choice voting.

Also running is Republican Nick Begich III — who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family as the grandson of the Democratic congressman of the same name, who disappeared on a flight in 1972, and the nephew of former Democratic Sen. Mark Begich — and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola. Independent candidate Al Gross was previously running but withdrew from the race.

The three special election contenders — along with nearly 20 other candidates, most notably Republican Tara Sweeney — are also running in a concurrent primary that will determine the four finalists for the November election that will decide who will win the at-large House seat for the next full term. There is also a gubernatorial primary.

Additionally, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the only senator who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial facing voters this year. Trump has endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration, in the Senate primary. However, due to Alaska’s top four primary system — where all candidates run the same ballot and the top four candidates advance to the general election —it’s likely that both Tshibaka and Murkowski will be on the ballot in November.

CNN’s Gregory Krieg contributed reporting to this post.

Voters in Alaska on Tuesday voted in two separate elections for the same US House seat — the state’s at-large congressional district seat.

That’s because there’s both a special general election to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term and a primary election to decide who will compete in November for the seat’s next full term starting in January.

It’s a complicated process. Beyond voting for the same seat twice in one day, different rules apply to the special general and primary elections.

What will happen in the special general election? The special general election will be the first time that Alaska will use ranked choice voting — which will see voters rank their preferred candidates, with the votes for the lowest-finishing candidates coming into play if no one tops 50% — to determine who will fill the remainder of Young’s term. If no one reaches that threshold, it’ll be a while until we know the winner, with the ranked choice voting tabulation scheduled to begin on Aug. 31.

What will happen in the primary? The primary will use a top-four system, which means that candidates of all parties, and those with no party affiliation, run on the same primary ballot — just as candidates did for the special election’s primary earlier this year. The top four performing candidates will then advance to the November general election for the full term.

Why is this happening? Young’s death led to the special election. He held the seat for 49 years, and following his death, there was a crowded field of 48 candidates who competed in the June special primary election for the seat. Alaskan officials set the special general election to take place on the same day as the already scheduled primary.

Who is running in the special general election? While four candidates advanced to the special general, only three candidates are on the ballot, after independent candidate Al Gross withdrew from the race. On the ballot are: former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin; Republican Nick Begich III, who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family; and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola.

Who is running in the primary? Palin, Begich and Peltola are also on the ballot for the regular primary Tuesday, along with 19 other candidates.

Continue reading here.

Polls close at 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. ET in Alaska. The state is holding a top-four primary for its at-large House seat, as well as primaries for the Senate seat currently held by GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, and for the governorship.

The state is also holding a ranked choice special general election for its House seat to fill the remainder of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s term, which former Gov. Sarah Palin is running in.

Here’s what to know about the state’s key races:

How ranked choice works: Ranked choice voting lets voters literally rank their choices in order of preference, marking candidates as their first, second and third choice picks (and so on). Voters do not need to mark every candidate, only a first choice or as many as they want. In the special general election, only first-choice votes will be reported on election night. The ranked choice voting tabulation will be conducted on Aug. 31. That means that, except in the unlikely event that one candidate gets a majority of the initial preference votes, CNN won’t be able to project a winner until the end of the month. 

Read more about Sarah Palin’s run here.

Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, who CNN projects will defeat Rep. Liz Cheney in the Wyoming House race, fired up a rowdy crowd of supporters at her primary night rally, declaring that what the state “has shown today is that while it may not be easy, we can dislodge entrenched politicians who believe they’ve risen above the people they are supposed to represent and serve.”

“Wyoming has spoken on behalf of everyone who is concerned that the game is becoming more and more rigged against them,” Hageman said.

She said voters in Wyoming have “made it clear – that we are taking our country back.”

“By our vote today, Wyoming has put the elites on notice. We are no longer going to tolerate representatives who don’t represent us. Wyoming has made clear that we are done being governed by the Washington, DC, uniparty,” she said.

“Those Democrats and Republicans who don’t really care which party is in power, just as long as they are. Wyoming has sent the message that if you are going to claim to live in Wyoming, you better damn well live in Wyoming,” Hageman declared. 

Republican Gov. Mark Gordon will face Democratic nominee Theresa Livingston in the Wyoming governor’s race in November, CNN projects.

Gordon, the incumbent, beat out a field of three other primary challengers on Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney called out former President Donald Trump and his actions during her concession speech, stating that it is the duty of citizens to “defend the freedom that has been handed down to us.”

Cheney referenced the recent actions of Trump, including spreading false statements about the lawful search by the FBI of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. She noted how he released the names of FBI agents involved in the search, despite knowing the threats they have faced.

“Today, our federal law enforcement is being threatened, a federal judge is being threatened. Fresh threats of violence are rising everywhere. And despite knowing all of this, Donald Trump recently released the names of the FBI agents involved in the search. That was purposeful and malicious. No patriotic American should excuse these threats or be intimidated by them,” Cheney said. “Our great nation, must not be ruled by a mob provoked over social media.”

She added, “Our duty as citizens of this republic is not only to defend the freedom that has been handed down to us. We also have an obligation to learn from the actions of those who came before. To know the stories of greats and perseverance.”

Rep. Liz Cheney said she called challenger Harriet Hageman to concede the House primary race, but added that “now the real work begins.”

“Tonight Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary, she won. I called her to concede the race,” Cheney said during a speech from Jackson, Wyoming.

She drew comparisons to Abraham Lincoln, who lost congressional elections before “he won the most important election of all,” the presidency, she said.

“Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our union, and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history,” Cheney said, adding that today it is critical to “bend the arc of history” to preserve our freedoms and protect the Constitution.

She also added that democracy “relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections.”

Rep. Liz Cheney said that the path to winning the Republican nomination for her House seat “was clear,” but it would have required her to “go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election.”

“Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear,” Cheney said during a speech from Jackson, Wyoming, after CNN projected her defeat. “But it would’ve required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would’ve required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic.”

She continued: “No House seat, no office in this land is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect. And I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office. To accept, honorably, the outcome of elections. Tonight Harriet Hageman, has received the most votes in this primary. She won. I called her to concede the race. This primary election is over. But now the real work begins.”

After being projected to lose her primary bid for reelection in Wyoming, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said a message she received from a Gold Star father more than a year ago has guided her actions.

“He said to me, ‘standing up for truth honors all who gave all’ and have thought of his words every single day since then,” Cheney said in remarks from Jackson, Wyoming.

“I thought of them because they are a reminder of how we must all conduct ourselves. We must conduct ourselves in a way that is worthy of the men and women who wear the uniform of this nation and in particular, of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice,” she added.

Cheney said “this is not a game,” adding that “every one of us must be committed” to defending America. She also thanked her staff and said, “our work is far from over.”

“And at the heart of our democratic process are elections. They are the foundational principle of our Constitution,” she said.

Harriet Hageman will win the Republican nomination in Wyoming’s House race, CNN projects, defeating Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and has helped lead the House Jan. 6 investigation.

Hageman grew up on her family’s small ranch near Fort Laramie, with a population of 207, not far from the state’s border with Nebraska. Long before her fight with Cheney, Hageman gained prominence as a natural resources attorney, specializing in cases protecting the state’s water, public lands and agriculture. 

“One of the things, I think, we need to do is make the federal government largely irrelevant to our everyday lives,” Hageman told voters this week during a stop at the Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce luncheon, highlighting decades of legal work fighting against such policies as protecting gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act and broader plans of national forest conservation. 

Hageman, 59, spent most of her career doing this work at her own law firm in Cheyenne. But now, she is a senior litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group based in Washington that battles environmental regulations, taxes and campaign finance restrictions. 

She has spent much of the last year driving around the state to build a campaign against Cheney, telling voters that she’s traveled about 40,000 miles since announcing her campaign nearly a year ago. Yet in the final week of the primary, she had no public campaign events, rather meeting privately with groups. 

Three other Republicans rounded out the House primary ballot. 

With Cheney’s defeat, only two House Republicans out of the 10 who supported the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump — and have subsequently been a constant target of his wrath — won their primary races. Read more here.

As polls close across the state of Wyoming and results start to come in, a gathering is taking place in a third floor event center in the Cheyenne Frontier Days, home to one of the largest rodeos in the country located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

The room is filled with enthusiastic Harriet Hageman supporters. They are serenaded by an ironic playlist of music by Elton John (“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”), Fleetwood Mac (“Don’t Stop”) Lynard Skynard (“Sweet Home Alabama”) and Bruce Springsteen (“Glory Days”).

People are jovial and light. Confidence fills the room as folks nibble on food and sip cocktails. 

The evening started with a prayer and reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.

At Rep. Liz Cheney’s event at a cattle ranch outside Jackson, Wyoming, CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reports that people are gathered having food and drinks outside.

There is a sense that some friends of Cheney have driven from across the state to support, he said.

Zeleny reports that the crowd does not seem “dispirited,” as Cheney faces a tough challenge from Hageman, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Cheney has been one of the Trump’s toughest critics and voted for his impeachment.

Zeleny said the crowd is wondering what she will say in her speech — regardless of the outcome of the election including her plans for 2024. He adds Cheney will likely not make a specific declaration about that but there is a “festive mood about what her future might be,” Zeleny reports. 

James Goldston, the veteran television producer who has spent the last several months advising the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, is on hand in Wyoming tonight for Rep. Liz Cheney’s speech.

Goldston, the former president of ABC News, was surveying the scene at Cheney’s campaign event at a cattle ranch outside Jackson. He and a small film crew were taking in the picturesque landscape, with the Grand Tetons in the distance and the Wyoming prairie bathed in the evening sunlight, in what will be a stunning backdrop for a marquee Cheney speech expected later today.

As the vice chair of the committee, Cheney worked closely with Goldston’s team in presenting the findings in a TV-ready fashion to a national audience. They have worked together to edit hours and hours of recordings that have brought to life the insurrection as it unfolded. 

Goldston was not in Wyoming as part of his work as a special adviser to the House committee, CNN has learned, but rather on assignment for his own production company for potential future projects involving Cheney.

“She invited him as a friend and it has nothing to do with committee work,” Jeremy Adler, a spokesperson for Cheney, told CNN.

Goldston declined to comment.

It is 9 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Wyoming.

The key race we are tracking: Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, is facing several Republican challengers, including attorney Harriet Hageman, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. Cheney has been one of Trump’s harshest critics and was ousted from her House Republican leadership post last year after publicly rejecting for months Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 presidential election. Cheney is also the last of the House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment to face primary voters.

“No matter what the outcome, it is certainly the beginning of a battle that is gonna continue and is going to go on, and as a country, we’re facing very challenging and difficult times. We are facing a moment where our democracy really is under attack and under threat,” Cheney told CBS earlier today in Wyoming.

“And those of us across the board — Republicans, Democrats and independents — who believe deeply in freedom and who care about the Constitution and the future of the country, I think have an obligation to put that above party and, I think that fight is clearly going to continue and clearly going to go on,” she said.

Cheney is expected to deliver remarks tonight near Jackson, Wyoming, and intends to make the case that she is at “the beginning of the battle,” advisers told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, as she calls on Republicans, Democrats and independents to join her fight to protect democracy and the rule of law in America.

A University of Wyoming poll released last week found that Cheney is trailing Hageman by 29 points. Yet one question looming over the Republican primary is how many Democrats and independents will switch parties and vote for Cheney, which even her supporters acknowledge is her only chance to stay competitive.

The Cowboy State is also holding a gubernatorial primary election.

Read more about tonight’s Wyoming primary here.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Gregory Krieg contributed reporting to this post.

Polls are closing in Wyoming at 9 p.m. ET. The immediate political future of Rep. Liz Cheney, one of former President Donald Trump’s most powerful critics in the GOP, is at stake tonight as the last of the House Republicans who voted for his impeachment to face primary voters.

She’s facing a challenge from Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman, among others, in a state the former President won with nearly 70% of the vote in 2020. His enduring popularity there, coupled with Cheney’s role as vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has made the three-term congresswoman and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney a top target of Trump allies.

Trump’s grip on the GOP has been proven again and again since he left Washington. Once considered an up-and-comer in the party, Cheney, a fierce conservative, was booted from House GOP leadership last year over her unyielding opposition to the former President.

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted for his second impeachment, at least seven are not coming back to Congress next year, either because they’re not running for reelection or were defeated in a primary. The two survivors to date, in California and Washington, benefited from their states’ nonpartisan primary system. Cheney has no such cushion, though a late push for Democrats and independents to register for the GOP primary might soften the ultimate count.

More about the primary: Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill have coalesced around Hageman, who has embraced Trump’s false election fraud claims and called the 2020 contest “rigged.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, another Hageman supporter, on Monday said during an appearance on Fox News that the election in Wyoming is “going to be a referendum on the January 6 committee.”

Cheney’s focus on the committee’s work and her unwavering commitment to, in her words, doing “everything I can to ensure that (Trump) never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” has set her apart from the small band of GOP colleagues who also voted for impeachment and are running for reelection. What her pledge entails, in practice, remains to be seen, but chatter about a 2024 presidential run has already begun.

Watch CNN’s John King break down the Cheney vs. Hageman race:

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01:48 - Source: cnn

While Rep. Liz Cheney’s fate in Wyoming has grabbed the most headlines, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, is also facing new competition this year fueled by her lack of fealty to former President Donald Trump. Unlike Cheney, however, Murkowski — herself the latest in a proud statewide political dynasty — is a better bet to overcome the forces arrayed against her.

That’s in large part due to Alaska’s nonpartisan top-four primary, which, like in the House race, sends the top four candidates to the general election, which will be decided by a ranked-choice vote if no one receives a majority. That process should aid Murkowski against Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration.

Murkowski has in the past enjoyed broad support, across partisan lines, in a state that elected her father, Frank Murkowski, first to the Senate and then as its governor. He then appointed his daughter to her current position in 2002. When she was defeated in a 2010 primary during the tea party wave, Murkowski launched a write-in campaign and defeated GOP nominee Joe Miller in the fall.

The state’s gubernatorial primary also features some familiar names: Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and independent former Gov. Bill Walker, who likely would have lost to Dunleavy in his 2018 reelection bid had he not dropped out shortly before the election and endorsed Democrat Mark Begich.

Dunleavy, now seeking a second term, won the one-on-one contest by less than 10 points.

If Wyoming GOP. Rep. Liz Cheney is threatened with being cast into her party’s wilderness, a prominent figure from its recent past is hoping to return from more than a decade off the electoral map.

Former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, whose ascent marked a precursor to the party’s Trump era, returned to the ballot on Tuesday. In this new iteration, she is the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump in a three-deep field vying to fill the remainder of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s seat.

Palin, who resigned as governor in 2009, is squaring off in the special election with Nick Begich III, the Republican scion of the state’s most storied Democratic family, and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola, who was endorsed by independent Al Gross after he dropped out of the race despite making the final four. If none of the three active candidates secures a majority of the vote, the election will be decided with a ranked-choice calculation that begins at the end of the month.

The three special election contenders — along with nearly 20 other candidates, most notably Republican Tara Sweeney — are also running in a concurrent primary that will determine the four finalists for the November election that will decide who will win the at-large House seat for the next full term.

Read more about tonight’s primaries here.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney has been one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest and most outspoken critics in the Republican Party. Today, the three-term conservative congresswoman faces multiple Republican opponents, including the Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman.

Although Cheney voted in line with Trump’s agenda 92.9% of the time, her vote to impeach the former President in January 2021 led to her ouster as GOP conference chair. A year later, the Republican National Committee took the unprecedented step of formally censuring her for serving on the House January 6, 2021, committee.

Now voters will decide her future in the House. For Cheney, tonight’s election represents another chapter of a tumultuous political career.

Here’s a look at some key moments from her political career:

See the full timeline here.

Even though just two states are voting, Tuesday is one of the most consequential primary days of the year, with former President Donald Trump looking to once again exert his control over the GOP in Wyoming and Alaska. 

Here is your guide to what to keep an eye on as polls close throughout the night:

9 p.m. ET: Polls close in Wyoming. Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary is one that has been circled on Trump’s calendar for a long time. Cheney is the last of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year to face a primary. So far, just two have advanced to the general election. But of that group, Cheney in particular has drawn Trump’s ire, using her perch as the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol to repeatedly call out the former President as a threat to democracy.  

Harriet Hageman, who won the former President’s endorsement in September of last year and had embraced his false election fraud claims, is a heavy favorite to defeat Cheney in the state’s at-large congressional district. While Cheney has maintained a clear fundraising advantage, her only hope to remain competitive in a state Trump won easily in 2020 is to convince enough Democrats and independents to cross over and vote for her in the GOP primary. A Cheney loss would further cement Trump’s grip on the Republican Party and mark the end of a family political dynasty — at least for the time being.  

Hageman last ran for office in 2018, when she lost the Republican primary for governor to Mark Gordon, who is now seeking a second term as governor. While Gordon faces a handful of challengers Tuesday, he is expected to cruise through his primary. 

12 a.m./1 a.m. ET: Polls close in Alaska. If you’re planning to follow the Alaska primary results, you may want to put on a pot of coffee this evening, especially if you’re on the East Coast. Polls will close in most of the state at midnight ET, but in a small part of the state, polls are open until 1 a.m. ET, so don’t expect any race projections until after then.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the only Republican senator facing reelection in 2022 who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial last year. Like Cheney, she quickly drew a primary challenge, with Trump endorsing Kelly Tshibaka in the summer of 2021. Murkowski may benefit from Alaska’s unique primary system where all candidates, regardless of party, appear on the same ballot and the top four finishers advance to the general election.

Elsewhere on the ballot, former vice presidential nominee and Gov. Sarah Palin is attempting a political comeback in a special election for Alaska’s lone congressional seat to complete the late Rep. Don Young’s term. She is on the ballot along with Republican Nick Begich III, who won the state party’s endorsement and is the grandson of the former Democratic congressman of the same name, and Democrat Mary Peltola. This election will be decided using ranked choice voting: if no candidate receives 50% of the first choice votes Tuesday, the ranked choice tabulation won’t be conducted until Aug. 31. 

To make matters even more complex, there is also a regular primary election for a full two-year term in Alaska’s at-large district. Palin, Begich and Peltola are also on that ballot for that contest, along with 19 other candidates. The top four vote-getters will advance to the November general election. 

Alaska is also hosting a top-four primary for governor, which features incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy as well as his predecessor, independent former Gov. Bill Walker. 

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Six years ago, when Rep. Liz Cheney first ran for Wyoming’s lone House seat, Nicholas Houfek said he saw the long-time Virginia resident, who had purchased a home in Jackson Hole four years earlier, as a “carpetbagger.”

Now, Houfek, a registered Republican who works in real estate, is staunchly behind Cheney in Tuesday’s primary against Harriet Hageman and three other candidates.

He asked Cheney’s campaign for a yard sign, which he and his wife Payson Houfek proudly display in their front yard. The two said many of their Democratic friends in the area have switched their party registration to vote for Cheney.

“This is not the Republican Party my dad and grandpa supported,” Nicholas Houfek said. “I support Cheney because she actually supports the election results. She’s a true Republican and always has been.”

The contest between Cheney and Hageman, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, stands as a telling bookend of the Republican Party’s evolution through the Trump era.

Even before Trump ran for office, the GOP in Wyoming was embroiled in a years-long feud between establishment Republicans and a more conservative wing that had increasingly seized power in party organizations throughout the state.

During Trump’s presidency, Cheney — whom Wyoming voters first elected to Congress on the same night Trump won the presidency in 2016 — had not just survived those factional battles but risen to the No. 3 spot in the House Republican conference.

But the riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — followed by Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump and her leading role on the House select committee investigating the attack and its causes — reshaped those allegiances and rivalries.

Keep reading here.

In her remarks tonight from Wyoming, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney intends to make the case that she is at “the beginning of the battle,” advisers tell CNN, as she calls on Republicans, Democrats and independents to join her fight to protect democracy and the rule of law in America.

The congresswoman has been working on her speech intensely for the last several days, aides said, crafting what is described as a blunt message seeking to escalate warnings about the danger of misinformation and lies. Win or lose, aides said, she is expected to strike similar themes in hopes of quickly pivoting beyond her race with Harriet Hageman.

The speech, which will be delivered outdoors from a ranch near Jackson with the Tetons in the distance, is intended to be forward-looking and offer a roadmap for the next steps in her quest to try and keep former President Donald Trump from winning the White House again. 

While she will address some questions about the next chapter of her political ambitions — forming a super PAC to support like-minded conservative candidates, establishing a policy-oriented think tank — she is not expected to deliver a firm answer to whether she will run for President. But the speech is not intended to rule out the possibility, aides say.

Cheney has been working on her speech with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and her mother, Lynne Cheney, both of whom are expected to be in the audience tonight. Her mother has been battling cancer, but family friends say they are hopeful she will be able to attend.

She intends to speak shortly after the race is projected, aides said, mindful of a national audience for her speech.

Cheney will outline her plan to “stay in the fight” against Trump, advisers say, and intends to wear the outcome of the primary as a “badge of conviction.” 

On the eve of the election, Cheney held a dinner for staff members and close friends in Jackson, people familiar with the event said, where she outlined some of her plans. She made clear that she is not expecting a victory over Hageman tonight, telling friends that a resounding loss will show once and for all that Wyoming GOP values are no longer aligned with her own. 

Yet in recent days, friends say, she has been more focused on trying to narrow the margin of the race, hoping to show there is a market for her message to stop Trump.

It’s an open question, of course, whether that is true. But even if she falls short, aides say, she intends to keep her focus on the House Jan. 6 committee and hearings next month. 

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign to purge the Republican Party of his opponents could reach its most dramatic moment of the 2022 midterm election cycle on Tuesday in Wyoming.

Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House committee investigating January 6, 2021, who was booted from her House leadership position and censured by the GOP organization in her state after voting to impeach Trump, faces the Trump-backed Harriet Hageman and three other candidates in the GOP primary for the state’s lone House seat.

A Cheney loss would be a demonstration that – despite the evidence publicly presented by the House committee and the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last week in a separate probe – Republican voters remain loyal to Trump, who’s suggested it’s a matter of when, not if, he launches a 2024 presidential bid.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, a Trump ally, former Gov. Sarah Palin, is attempting a political comeback. And a Republican who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, faces the first of what’s likely to be a two-round showdown with a Republican rival backed by the former President.

Here are a few things to watch in Tuesday’s elections:

Cheney is the last of the “impeachment 10” to face voters

Most of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the insurrection are not returning to Congress next year.

Four of them (Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York and Fred Upton of Michigan) aren’t seeking reelection. Three (Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, Peter Meijer of Michigan and Tom Rice of South Carolina) lost their primaries earlier this summer.

The only two who have survived – Reps. David Valadao of California and Dan Newhouse of Washington – did so in part because their states hold all-party primaries, where the top two vote-getters advance to November.

That leaves Cheney as the last of the 10 to face primary voters.

Trump endorsed Hageman, a lawyer and former Republican National Committee member who has embraced his falsehoods about election fraud as well as hammered Cheney for her focus on the former President.

To pull off what would be a stunning victory, Cheney is relying, in part, on support from the Democratic and independent voters who once opposed her. Her campaign sent information to those voters on how to change their party registration to vote in Tuesday’s GOP contest, and she has focused her campaigning in the race’s final days in Jackson Hole, the state’s only heavily Democratic region.

Murkowski’s first round vs. Trump-backed challenger

Trump has also set his sights on Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial who is up for reelection this year.

Trump is backing former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner Kelly Tshibaka; he traveled to Alaska to hold a rally for her in July.

However, Alaska’s unusual nonpartisan primary system – the top four finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election – means that both Murkowski and Tshibaka are all but certain to advance to the November contest.

Retired educator Patricia Chesbro, who is endorsed by Alaska’s Democratic Party, is also widely expected to advance. The fourth spot is a jump ball, with 16 other candidates in the race.

Murkowski’s family has held her Senate seat for more than four decades.

Will Sarah Palin win a seat in Congress?

Alaska is holding a special election Tuesday to fill the remaining months of the term of the late Rep. Don Young, the Republican who represented Alaska in the House for 49 years until his death in March.

The race pits Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee who has not appeared on a ballot since that election loss, against Nick Begich III, the Republican scion of the state’s most famous Democratic political family.

Begich, who received the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in the race, is the grandson of the Democratic congressman of the same name, who disappeared on a flight in 1972, and the nephew of former Democratic US Sen. Mark Begich.

Also in the race is Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state representative who was the fourth-place finisher in the June special primary. Peltola, if elected, would become the first Alaska Native in Congress. Independent Al Gross placed third in the primary, but he subsequently dropped out of the race and urged supporters to back Peltola.

If none of the four candidates tops 50% on Tuesday, ranked-choice voting kicks in – a system that could work against the Trump-endorsed Palin.

She is likely to receive the most support – but she could also face the most hardened opposition in a state that hasn’t forgotten her 2009 decision to resign from the governor’s office midway through her only term. Palin has been largely absent from Alaska’s political scene since then.

Keep reading here.

Liz Cheney didn’t come right out and say she expects to lose her primary. But in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on July 24, it was pretty easy to read between the lines of the Wyoming Republican’s answers.

“I am working hard here in Wyoming to earn every vote,” Cheney said at one point. “But I will also say this. I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to say things that aren’t true about the election. My opponents are doing that, certainly simply for the purpose of getting elected.

“If I have to choose between maintaining a seat in the House of Representatives or protecting the constitutional republic and ensuring the American people know the truth about Donald Trump, I’m going to choose the Constitution and the truth every single day,” she said at another.

Asked by Tapper whether her service as vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will have been worth it even if she loses in her primary, Cheney responded that it was “the single most important thing I have ever done professionally.”

If it sounds to you like Cheney is framing her primary for Wyoming’s at-large House seat as a sort of fait accompli, and as not the end of the story but as a part of a broader narrative, well, then, you are right.

The simple fact is that Cheney is very unlikely to beat Harriet Hageman in Tuesday’s primary. Hageman has the support of former President Donald Trump, as well as a number of top Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

While Cheney has tried to recruit Democrats to cross party lines and support her – and some undoubtedly will – it’s hard to see that making a real difference in the outcome of the race in such an overwhelmingly Republican state.

Simply put: Cheney looks likely to lose – and she knows it.

What she also knows is that, at least in her mind, this isn’t the end of her political career.

Read more here about how Cheney answered a question from Tapper on whether she is interested in running for president in 2024.

There’s a special general election in Alaska to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term and also a primary election to decide who will compete in November for the seat’s next full term starting in January.

While four candidates advanced to Alaska’s special general, only three candidates are on the ballot, after independent candidate Al Gross withdrew from the race.

On the ballot are: former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin; Republican Nick Begich III, who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family; and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola.

Palin’s attempt at a political comeback comes 13 years after she resigned the Alaska governor’s office in 2009 during her only term. Since then, she has been a conservative media figure and has endorsed and campaigned with various Republican candidates, but she has been largely detached from Alaska politics.

Rival candidates and political observers in the state say the ranked choice voting process could hurt Palin’s chances in the general election. She’s the best-known candidate in the race by far, and has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who carried Alaska by 10 points in 2020. But Palin also faces opposition from voters still angry that she quit the governor’s office.

For the regular primary on Tuesday, Palin, Begich and Peltola are also on the ballot, along with 19 other candidates.

Read more about Alaska’s elections on Tuesday here.

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney voted this morning at the Teton County Library, choosing to cast her ballot at a polling place in nearby Jackson, Wyoming, rather than at a location less than two miles from her home.

There was a wide expectation among residents in her hometown of Wilson that she would vote at the Old Wilson Schoolhouse. Some people — and many reporters — have been waiting for hours for Cheney to vote, but she chose to do so away from cameras rather than have a traditional photo opportunity on Election Day.

A Cheney adviser confirmed that she voted, but had no explanation for why she avoided the press at her neighborhood polling place.

Here’s what Cheney tweeted about her vote today:

Harriet Hageman proudly wears Wyoming on her sleeve – and wields it like a hammer against Liz Cheney.

“I know Wyoming. I love Wyoming. I am Wyoming,” Hageman told audiences as she traveled across the state during the closing days of a bitter Republican duel in one of the highest-profile congressional races in the country.

“I am going to reclaim Wyoming’s lone congressional seat from that Virginian who currently holds it,” Hageman likes to say, casting aside the Cheney family’s deep roots in the state and suggesting the three-term congresswoman is more at home in the Washington suburbs.

These days, signs of trouble for Cheney are easy to spot here in Wyoming. Hageman holds a commanding lead in the final weekend of a primary election that stands as yet another reminder of the Republican Party’s evolution in the era of Donald Trump.

A University of Wyoming poll released last week found that Cheney is trailing Hageman by 29 points. Yet one question looming over the Republican primary is how many Democrats and independents will switch parties and vote for Cheney, which even her supporters acknowledge is her only chance to stay competitive.

“If it’s a big Republican vote, there aren’t enough Democrats to change it, even if we all crossed over,” former Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan said in an interview Friday, noting that he is among the Democrats who have temporarily switched parties to support Cheney. “Out of honor and respect for her leadership, I cast my vote her way.”

The venom in the Cheney-Hageman race comes alive in conversations with voters, dueling television ads and reports of stolen yard signs. Their relationship wasn’t always acrimonious, when Hageman stood alongside Cheney and showered her with praise during Cheney’s first bid for Congress in 2016.

Keep reading here.

The Republican nominee in at least 20 of this year’s 36 gubernatorial races is someone who has rejected, declined to affirm, raised doubts about, or tried to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

And the list will almost certainly get longer when the last batch of Republican primaries is completed over the coming weeks.

The 20 candidates on the list so far have expressed varying views about the 2020 election. Some have falsely proclaimed the election stolen; some others have been evasive when asked if Biden’s victory was legitimate. Some incumbents endorsed a 2020 lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden’s win but have said little about the election since; some first-time candidates made false election claims a focus of their successful 2022 primary campaigns.

Regardless, the presence of a large number of 2020 deniers, deceivers and skeptics on general election ballots in November raises the prospect of a crisis of democracy in the 2024 presidential election in which former President Donald Trump is widely expected to run again. Governors play a major role in elections – signing or vetoing legislation about election rules, sometimes unilaterally changing those rules, appointing key election officials, and, critically, certifying election results.

It is possible that some swing states will have their 2024 elections run by both a governor and elections chief who have vehemently rejected Biden’s victory.

In Arizona, for example, both Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem are conspiracy theorists who want to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in the state. In Pennsylvania, where the governor gets to nominate the election chief, the Republican gubernatorial nominee is Doug Mastriano, a fervent election denier who has taken various steps to try to reverse the 2020 result. Both Republican nominees in Michigan, Tudor Dixon for governor and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state, have falsely claimed Trump won the state in 2020.

Read about them here.

The doors opened at the Old Wilson Schoolhouse shortly after sunrise, with voters trickling in to cast their ballots in the small Wyoming town that GOP Rep. Liz Cheney calls home.

Libbe Burchfield, who has lived in Wilson for four decades, is a Democrat. But she said she switched parties today to vote for Cheney, as a sign of respect for her leadership on the Jan. 6 House select committee.

“I don’t agree with any of her politics – none,” Burchfield said, pausing for a moment to talk. “But what I’ve seen her do on the committee has been very rewarding. I think she’s done a hell of a good job.”

Burchfield said she realizes it’s an uphill battle for Cheney, but added, “I hope enough of us changed parties to get behind her and she still has a chance.”

A University of Wyoming poll released last week found that Cheney is trailing Harriet Hageman — backed by former President Donald Trump — by 29 points.

Throughout the morning, a steady stream of voters arrived at the polling place, which is one of four in Teton County. 

The school, which serves as a community center for this small town outside Jackson, is close to Cheney’s house. Several residents said they expect her to cast her ballot here before day’s end.

Resident John Grant did not have to change his parties to cast his vote for Cheney. He said he’s a longtime Republican, and he’s frustrated the party is still in the grips of Trump.

“It certainly is a tough race for Liz. She does a good job and works hard at what she does,” Grant said. “She stood up for what she believes in. It took a lot of courage to step against the Republican Party and Donald Trump and Republicans in general.”

Alaska will hold a ranked choice special general election for its House seat to fill the remainder of the late GOP Rep. Don Young’s term.

While four candidates advanced to the special general, only three candidates are on the ballot, after independent candidate Al Gross withdrew from the race.

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, Republican Nick Begich III, who won the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement in April and is the product of a powerful Alaska political family and former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola are on the ballot.

What is ranked choice voting and how does it work? It literally rank their choices in order of preference, marking candidates as their first, second and third choice picks (and so on).

The winner must have a majority (more than 50% of the votes) rather than a plurality (simply the most votes).

In Alaska’s special general election, only first choice votes will be reported on election night.

The ranked choice voting tabulation will be conducted on Aug. 31. That means that, except in the unlikely event that one candidate gets a majority of the initial preference votes, we won’t be able to project a winner until the end of the month.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized former President Donald Trump as a “threat to our republic” and a “coward” in a campaign ad for his daughter, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who’s facing a competitive Republican primary today.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the former vice president said in the 60-second spot released earlier this month. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

He said he “proudly voted” for his daughter, who is the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

“There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office,” Cheney added.

Though Cheney has occasionally criticized Trump and his administration’s policies, the ad underscored his deep opposition to the former President, who has made defeating Liz Cheney a top political priority after she voted to impeach him last year and has remained a vocal critic.

The Cheney campaign purchased a series of national ad spots on Fox News to run the spot.

Trump has endorsed Harriet Hageman in the primary, who’s one of four challengers taking on the three-term congresswoman for the nomination for the at-large House seat. Her rivals have attacked Cheney over her role as one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel and have dismissed that probe’s importance.

Like Trump, Hageman has made false claims about the 2020 election, citing the “2000 Mules” film that peddles conspiracy theories about ballot drop boxes and “Zuckerberg money” – a reference to donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, through a nonprofit to help local elections officials navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN’s Eric Bradner and David Wright contributed to this report.

In at least 10 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy – especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem of Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden’s victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a “scam,” the vote “tainted” and the outcome “questionable.”

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as “lawless.” The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 10 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden “legitimately occupies” the presidency, while Finchem, a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election, has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden’s victory in Arizona.

Read about them here.

Wyoming’s most competitive primary race will be the Republican primary for the state’s at-large congressional seat. Rep. Liz Cheney will face Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman as Cheney attempts to survive her most contentious election yet. 

Cheney is one of the most high-profile anti-Trump Republicans in Congress. In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol when Cheney called for her party to move on from former President Donald Trump and voted to impeach him. Cheney’s criticism of Trump led to his backers in the House to successfully push for her to be removed from her position as the chairwoman of the GOP conference. She now serves as vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

Here’s what to know about the key race:

Cheney is facing a steep primary challenge in Wyoming’s at-large congressional district. Trump, following the defeats of three other House Republicans who voted to impeach him, is hoping his endorsement of Hageman — who has claimed the 2020 election was rigged — delivers him a fourth victory.

In one of Cheney’s recent TV ads, her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, said that “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of GOP leadership have endorsed Hageman. Three other Republicans round out the primary ballot.

Poll times: Wyoming is in the Mountain Time Zone, and polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

Voter eligibility: There is not a voter registration deadline in Wyoming as voters can register the same day they vote. Only registered members of political parties can participate in those parties’ primary contests. However, voters can change their party affiliation in-person on Election Day. Anyone casting their ballot at the polls will have to show an ID.

Read more about where the “Impeachment 10” stand going into midterms.