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The bill would’ve forced Cheney and other candidates to receive more than 50% of the vote to win a primary, and potentially pit her against one Trump-backed opponent in a runoff primary election. So far, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard and state Rep. Chuck Gray have said they’ll run against Cheney. In deep-red Wyoming, a Democrat is unlikely to win the general election for the state’s sole US House seat.
Gray told CNN that he supported the legislation “because Wyoming deserves the ability to choose between the two best candidates for office.”
“Liz Cheney’s betrayal of our Wyoming values is a clear indicator that runoff elections are needed,” he added. “It is no wonder that her team is working behind the scenes to kill this legislation.”
Before the vote on the bill, a Cheney spokesperson told CNN that she “trusts the state legislature to do what is right for Wyoming” and that “neither she nor her allies are trying to influence the state legislature over the bill one way or the other.”
But despite Trump Jr.’s efforts, a Wyoming state Senate committee amended the bill so it wouldn’t take effect until 2023, as some legislators pushed to give county clerks enough time to adapt.
Wyoming state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, a Republican co-sponsor of the legislation, had doubted that it would pass this year, telling CNN that the state needed more time to fully understand the cost and impacts of moving the primary from August to May, and creating a new runoff election. Zwonitzer also said that the national attention put lawmakers in a difficult spot.
“When national Republican politics comes to Wyoming, it further divides and creates…
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