Liz Cheney, the strongest Republican critic of former US President Donald Trump, has been ousted in the primary election for the state of Wyoming.
"Two years ago, I won this primary with 73 percent of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election," she said while conceding her defeat.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who played a huge role in the 2003 Iraq War, chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership, from 2019 to 2021.
"It would have required that I enabled his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take," she added.
Cheney was also appointed as the vice chairwoman of the United States House Select Committee on the 6 January attack, and has taken the lead in presenting evidence against Trump regarding the Capitol riot.
In the primary election, she lost to Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, previously a candidate for the 2018 Wyoming gubernatorial election.
"I think we need to make the federal government largely irrelevant to our everyday lives," Hageman told her audience once in a campaign rally.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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