Liz Cheney supports Kamala Harris: A significant signal from the ranks of the Republicans

In a surprising turn of events, Liz Cheney has expressed her support for Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy. She joins the ranks of prominent Republicans who have left their party's candidate to support the Democratic Vice President in the upcoming election against Donald Trump. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and until last year a Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, announced on Wednesday evening to an audience at Duke University that she intends to cast her vote for Harris. Cheney emphasized the crucial importance for voters to recognize the 'danger' of a Trump re-election. 'As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought about this long and hard. And because of the danger Donald Trump poses, not only will I not vote for Donald Trump, but I will also be voting for Kamala Harris,' she added. Cheney, a staunch conservative and advocate of a vigorous foreign policy, served as a congresswoman from 2017 to 2023. She quickly rose through the ranks to become chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the third-highest party official in the lower chamber of Congress. However, she clashed with her party over its response to Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the events of January 6, 2021, when supporters of the former president stormed the U.S. Capitol. Cheney supported Trump's second impeachment and was later removed from her leadership position in the House Republican Conference. Ultimately, she became the leading Republican on a Democrat-led committee investigating the January 6 attack but lost the 2022 Republican primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger. Cheney has long been one of Trump's fiercest Republican critics. However, she had not previously indicated support for Harris, even as many other prominent anti-Trump Republicans spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. Among those speakers were Adam Kinzinger, the former congressman from Illinois and the only other Republican on the January 6 committee, as well as Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia.