A Republican opponent of a Wyoming state congressman in the primary election accuses the incumbent of having supported former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney in the past, who was clearly rejected by Wyoming voters in the 2022 election.
“Who is Landon Brown?” said a Facebook post on Tuesday by Exie Brown, Republican Rep. Landon Brown’s challenger in the primary.
Exie’s post then points to a February 12, 2022, CNN interview in which Landon appeared alongside interviewer Phil Mattingly to express his support for Cheney and talk about a “fringe group” of “far-right conservatives in Wyoming politics.”
“Also, Landon Brown said in this interview that he agreed with Cheney that some Republican leaders had ‘abandoned the Constitution,'” says Exie Brown’s post, which includes a video of the interview.
In the interview, Landon Brown also called Trump “unfit for office” because of Trump’s response to the breach of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and vowed to do everything in his power to prevent him from breaking into the Oval Office again.
“Trump has hijacked the Republican Party,” Landon added in the interview.
‘Old news’
Wyoming voters overwhelmingly rejected Cheney in the 2022 election, choosing Rep. Harriet Hageman instead. Wyoming Republicans first turned against Cheney after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
Trump won Wyoming in 2020 with 70% of the vote.
Cheney was also a member of a predominantly Democratic congressional committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
In an interview with Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, Landon Brown called Exie’s Facebook post “old news” and questioned whether it would still be relevant in 2024.
“Two years ago, I ran openly as a supporter of Liz Cheney,” he said. “Have she done anything since then that I disagree with? Absolutely.”
For example, Cheney is still railing against Trump, which is beginning to resemble “almost a personal vendetta,” he said, adding that the nation should look forward from Jan. 6.
Landon Brown also said Cheney’s willingness to donate to Democrats bothered him.
But he is not afraid to stand by her in 2022 and has no regrets now because he believes she has defended the U.S. Constitution during her time in office, Landon Brown said. He also pointed to her conservative record in Congress.
Today, Cheney is virtually a non-entity in Wyoming politics.
Landon Brown said he wants to focus on what Wyoming needs in the future – “and not rehash the past and look back at who I supported two years ago.”
He also suspected that the “Cheney card” would not destroy his chances of re-election. When he ran as her ally in 2022, he had two challengers in the primaries and still received more than 50% of the vote, he noted.
Exie Brown did not respond to two phone calls and a voicemail from Cowboy State Daily seeking comment by publication time.
Loyalty policy
Landon Brown described his opponent’s post as an attempt to portray him as less conservative because he does not pledge allegiance to Trump.
He said he thought Trump’s policies were “very good” and did not believe the country would have weathered the Covid-19 pandemic so well under Democratic leadership.
Still, he questioned the “almost … cult following” some conservatives have formed around Trump and the personal acrimony Trump displays toward enemies and insults. Landon Brown said he reserves the right to disagree with Trump and any other political figure, and he values conservative ideals such as small and unintrusive government more highly than Trump does.
But Landon Brown said he has also noticed more modest behavior from Trump since a gunman on a rooftop attempted to shoot the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
“I actually respect the man a lot more since he changed his ways,” he said. “All in all, I think he’s a far better choice in our country than the Kamala (Harris) ticket.”
Claire McFarland can be reached at [email protected].
