Ousting Liz Cheney shows the power of Trump’s base

EVANSTON, Ill. – House Republicans voted this morning to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her leadership role for rebuking former President Trump’s false claims of election fraud and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Northwestern University political scientists weigh in on what this means for the Republican party and ongoing bipartisan cooperation in Congress.

Laurel Harbridge-Yong is an associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow in Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research. Her most recent book is “Rejecting Compromise: Legislators’ Fear of Primary Voters.” She can be reached at l-harbridge@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Harbridge-Yong
“Today's vote to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership position indicates that the Republican Party believes their electoral success hinges on the support of Trump's core voters. More worrisome is the signal that the Republican Party believes that sowing doubt about electoral integrity and threatening core democratic institutions is a winning formula. This vote and the publicity around it are focused on messaging and gives credence to state GOP parties trying to limit voting access in the name of election integrity. But whether it further limits the prospects for bipartisan cooperation on substantive policy issues is less clear. Individual legislators in the GOP may still want to have a say in the broad range of less contentious issues that Congress addresses each year.”

Alvin B. Tillery Jr. is an associate professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy. His research and teaching interests are in the fields of American politics and political theory. His research focuses on American political development, racial and ethnic politics and media and politics. He can be reached at alvin.tillery@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Tillery
“The decision taken by the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives to strip Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership position for her refusal to stop condemning former President Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his role in inciting the Capital Hill Insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, is a watershed moment in American history. It reveals that the Republican Party has completely lost their way as a center-right party and that they will continue their efforts to weaken and subvert American democracy going forward. Rep. Cheney joins a handful of other Republicans in Congress, like Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in emerging as a true profile in courage for our times. Her powerful speech rebuking her fellow partisans for their lurch toward authoritarianism before a nearly empty House chamber yesterday will be remembered and taught by scholars of democracy for generations.

“The truly sad thing for our republic is that the behavior that Ms. Cheney has engaged in – simply working and living by her oath of office – which we laud as heroic patriotism for a Republican, was basic professional ethics for a member of Congress just five short years ago.”