Liz Cheney Presidential Run in 2024 Will 'Help' Trump, Democrats Warn

Whether Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, ultimately launches a 2024 presidential run remains to be seen, but some Democrats are already warning that such a decision could "help" former President Donald Trump get reelected.

Cheney, one of Trump's strongest conservative critics, hinted at the possibility that she could launch a presidential bid after she lost her GOP primary to Trump-backed challenger, attorney Harriet Hageman, on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the ex-president continues to hint at another White House bid in 2024, although he has not officially confirmed his intentions.

Even if Cheney is clearly on the outs with Republicans, and enjoys praise from Democrats, many in the Democratic Party are less than enthusiastic over the prospect that the staunch conservative could seek the presidency. Despite her opposition to Trump after January 6, 2021, she voted with the former president more than 90 percent of the time while he was in office.

"I greatly admire what Liz has done. She's sacrificed her congressional career to stand up to Trump," Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told The Hill in an article published Sunday. "As for 2024, it's unclear to me if she ran as an independent that it would hurt Trump. There's a danger she might inadvertently help Trump more than hurt him."

Eddie Vale, a Democratic strategist, shared similar concerns with the publication.

"If she actually wants to run and try to win—either a Republican primary or in the general as an independent—the people telling her to do this are delusional and/or handcuffed to a green room installed on an Acela train," he said. "The inevitable end result is her pulling anti-Trump votes from Biden."

President Joe Biden has said repeatedly that he plans to seek a second White House term, despite his low approval rating and concerns about his age. Some Democrats have begun openly speculating about alternative candidates, even publicly encouraging others to run.

Cheney said that she plans to do whatever she can to prevent Trump from becoming president again.

"This primary election is over, but now the real work begins," the GOP congresswoman said in her Tuesday evening concession speech. She lost to Hageman by more than 37 points.

Posting a clip from her concession speech to Twitter on Friday, Cheney wrote: "We must be very clear eyed about the threat we face and about what is required to defeat it. I have said since January 6th that I will do whatever it takes to prevent Donald Trump from ever again getting anywhere near the Oval Office—and I mean it."

Cheney supported Trump in 2016 and again in the lead up to the 2020 election. However, she condemned him and quickly became one of his staunchest opponents in the aftermath of the January 6 attack by his supporters targeting the U.S. Capitol. The GOP lawmaker led a group of 10 House Republicans in joining Democrats in voting to impeach the then-president for inciting the violence.

"The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said at the time, explaining her impeachment decision.

Since then, Cheney has faced strong backlash from the GOP, and was ousted from her No. 3 leadership role as House Republican Conference Chair last May. The Wyoming GOP also voted to stop recognizing her as a Republican.

The GOP congresswoman took on the role of vice chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot, and offered a stern rebuke of her Republican colleagues who continue to align with Trump during a June hearing of the committee.

"Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain," she said.

Newsweek reached out to Cheney's newly formed The Great Task PAC for comment.