Wyoming voters handed Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) a woefully low approval rating heading into the August 16 Republican primary contest against former President Donald Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, a Casper Star-Tribune/Mason-Dixon poll revealed on Friday.
Only 27 percent approved of Cheney’s job performance, while about 66 percent disapproved. Seven percent did not have an opinion.
“Men were especially critical of Cheney’s performance: Only one in five approved of the job she’s doing,” the poll found.
Cheney’s low approval rating is a result of her participation in Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) partisan January 6 Committee. “[T]he poll found 54% of voters were less likely to support her because she’s part of the panel investigating the attack on the Capitol.”
House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) answers questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 08, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images).
Cheney’s involvement in the January 6 Committee has earned her a greater job approval (53 percent) among Democrats.
“While 69% of registered Democrats who plan to participate in the GOP primary are supporting Cheney, that level of support still leaves her trailing Hageman by a wide margin,” the poll estimated. “But because of the relatively small number of Democrats in Wyoming, crossover voting is unlikely to make a difference.”
Cheney has solicited Democrats for votes and has raised money from former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton donors.
Asking Democrats for votes has perhaps hurt Cheney among Republicans. The poll found Hageman leads Cheney by 22 points (52 to 30 percent). Eleven percent are undecided.
Donald Trump with Harriet Hageman of Wyoming (inset) (Joe Raedle/Getty; hagemanforwy/Instagram)
According to previous polling, Hageman is leading in the polls by 28 and 30 points. On Saturday, PredictIt’s betting odds show Hageman is favored to handily defeat Cheney by 95 cents on the dollar. Cheney’s odds of winning the contest are pegged at 7 cents on the dollar.
The Mason-Dixon poll sampled 1,100 Wyoming voters from July 7-11 with a 3-point margin of error.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.