Trump-backed candidate who ousted Liz Cheney rallies GOP supporters in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Harriet Hageman, the Trump-backed Republican who defeated Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney in an August primary, railed Tuesday against federal largesse and deficit spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, and implored Republican candidates up and down the ballot to push against perceived federal overreach and “bad policies” from the Biden administration.

Hageman defeated Cheney after the GOP incumbent lost the support of many in the state’s Republican Party, driven by her criticism of former President Donald Trump and her prominent role on the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Hageman was joined in Cedar Rapids by Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann to rally Iowa GOP supporters, voters, donors and volunteers ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Hageman, who is virtually assured of winning Wyoming’s only seat in the U.S. House next month due that state’s sizable Republican majority, said she is committed to “pulling power out of Washington, D.C., and returning it to our legislators and local government, and holding people accountable for the decisions that they’re making, because if we don’t start holding people accountable, we’re going to lose our country.”

“Stockpiling more and more power in Washington, D.C., has got us into the mess we’re in,” she said, alluding to inflation, high energy prices, an expanded federal government and continued deficit spending. “And we need to be sending people back there who are willing to divest Washington, D.C., of power and push it back out to the states where it belongs.”

“Which also why we really need to elect top-notch people in our state legislatures, because our state legislators also need to step up and start fighting,” Hageman said.

She compared governors of states who accepted federal assistance and enacted strict COVID-19 mitigation measures as “crack addicts.”

“What I mean by that is they put out their hands and said, ‘We’ve blown a hole in our budget. We shut down our businesses. We shut down our sales tax. We shut down restaurants. We shut down everything. Give me money,’” Hageman said.

As for Cheney, Hageman said she “didn’t understand” Wyoming residents, and miscalculated “when she took on Donald Trump, when she fought the battles that she did.”

Kaufmann said the state party invited Hageman to Iowa — where she headlined a Polk County GOP fundraiser and campaigned with Iowa Republicans in Ottumwa, Cedar Rapids and Bettendorf --- because of her grassroots success.

"What happened in Wyoming, aside from who the players were, was a classic case — a showdown — of local grassroots activist versus the swamp,“ Kaufmann said.

He called Cheney a “predictable swamp creature” who “was not a team player” and “more interested in themselves” than helping “the political party that is on the right side of things.”

“And I wanted you to hear directly from her and not filtered through a media that did not like Republicans,” he told the gathering of 30-some Republican supporters, voters, donors and volunteers.

Some Iowa Republican candidates were also in attendance, including Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate; Cindy Golding, candidate for Iowa House District 83 in rural Linn County; Charlie McClintock, a state representative from Alburnett running for Iowa Senate District 42, which covers much of rural Linn and Benton counties; and Linn County Supervisor candidate Brett Mason.

Mason praised Hageman for being a champion of states’ rights, agriculture and energy, and joined Kaufmann in ridiculing those who’ve praised Cheney for her role on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Cheney has said she is considering a potential run for president, possibly as an independent. Should she campaign in Iowa, Mason said predicted “she’d be laughed off stage.”

He went on to claim — inaccurately — that Cheney’s work on the commission aims to “prosecute an insurrection that has no weapons.” Testimony about armed Trump supporters accompanied police radio reports during the committee’s hearings. A wide array of weapons — including a firearm — were found on protesters at the Capitol, according to a review of the federal charges by NPR.

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