Former Vice President Dick Cheney will vote for Harris, his daughter Liz Cheney says
Former Vice President Dick Cheney will cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, said during an interview on Friday.
Both Cheneys are Republicans, and the elder served under President George W. Bush. The younger Cheney has become one of former President Donald Trump’s most prominent conservative critics.
“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” the former Wyoming congresswoman said Friday during an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival when asked in an interview if she knew who her father would vote for.
“If you think about the moment that we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes and he’s said publicly that there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is,” Cheney said. “And that’s the moment that we’re facing.”
Liz Cheney had said during her announcement at Duke University on Wednesday that people do not have “the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states.””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,” she said Wednesday.
Asked for comment Friday about Cheney’s remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung replied, “Who the f— is Liz Cheney?”
The former congresswoman also said during her Friday interview with The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich that she would support Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, in his Senate bid in the state. Allred is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who has served in the Senate since 2013.
“Here in Texas you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for the United States Senate, and his name is —” she paused as the audience cheered and Leibovich asked them to let her speak.
“It’s not Ted Cruz,” she said.
Cheney went on to praise Allred’s credentials, noting the time she served in the House with him.
“We need people who are going to serve in good faith,” Cheney said. “We need people who are honorable public servants, and in this race, that is Colin Allred. So I’ll be working on his behalf.”
In a statement, Allred called Cheney a “patriot” and said he was “honored to have her support.”
“Though we may not agree on everything, we’ve been able to find common ground by putting our country over political parties,” Allred said. “Importantly, we both believe in protecting our democracy, our constitution and the foundational promise of our great country. And we both agree that Texans cannot afford six more years of Ted Cruz.”
The Allred campaign also noted that he and Cheney cosponsored more than 50 bills together, a nod to their efforts to work across the aisle.
When reached for comment, a Cruz campaign spokesperson called Cheney “the poster child of flip-flopping.”
“We’re definitely super surprised to hear that Liz Cheney, the poster child of flip-flopping, is endorsing Colin Allred,” the spokesperson said. “Two years ago, the voters of Wyoming overwhelmingly rejected her, just like the voters of Texas will overwhelmingly reject Colin Allred this November. But hey, misery loves company.”
Liz Cheney was ousted in 2021 from her position in House Republican leadership after criticizing Trump. In 2022, she lost her congressional primary race to a Trump-backed challenger.
During the midterm campaign cycle, former Vice President Dick Cheney taped an advertisement for his daughter’s campaign, where he called Trump a “coward.”
“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 advertisement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”
A Harris campaign spokesperson did not provide comment on Liz Cheney’s remarks, but pointed NBC News to the campaign’s efforts to expand outreach to Republican voters.
The Cheneys are the latest in a steady stream of Republicans who, despite policy differences, plan to cast ballots for Harris.
Last week, more than 200 Republicans who have worked for both Bush presidents, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain announced that they are backing Harris.
“Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected,” said the former staffers said in a statement, “The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”
Several prominent GOP critics of Trump, including former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, appeared onstage at the Democratic National Convention last month to back Harris. In his speech, Kinzinger urged voters to “put country first” and argued that Trump has “suffocated the soul” of the GOP.
