Liz Cheney loses Wyoming House seat to Trump-endorsed candidate

Rep. Liz Cheney was defeated by a Trump-endorsed candidate in the Wyoming primaries while Sarah Palin advanced to Alaska's general election.

Cody Godwin, USA TODAY

Days after being voted out as Wyoming's sole House of Representatives member, some social media users claimed RepublicanRep. Liz Cheney's election loss was retribution for a single vote against now-former President Donald Trump.

Liz Chaney (sic) voted with Trump 100 percent of the time, read the beginning of an Aug. 20 Facebook post that was shared more than 150 times in a week. Denies the big lie and voted to impeach a crook and gets voted out. Says a lot about this Republican Party.

But records show Cheney voted against Trumps positions more than a dozen times throughout his presidency. They differed on topics includingappropriations legislation; imposing sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea; and a measure to override Trump's veto of a 2020 defense bill.

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USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment.

Though Cheney supported Trumps positions an overwhelming majority of the time, there were numerous occasions when she voted against his policy preferences including well before Trump's 2021 impeachment charge.

FiveThirtyEight, a politics-focused website developed by statistician Nate Silver, saidCheney voted with Trump 92.9% of the time he was in office from 2017 to 2021. Her votes clashed with Trump's positions 13 times, according to the website's tally.

The website reported their first difference came less than four months into Trumps term, with Cheney voting against the 2017 fiscal year appropriations bill.

Cheney issued a statement saying she voted against the bill because it only contained half of the $30 billion Trump requested for military funding.

I could not support legislation that provided wholly inadequate funding to begin to rebuild Americas military, Cheney said.

Later in 2017, Cheney voted in favor of imposing sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. Trump released a statement saying the bill was "seriously flawed particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate." But Trump said he neverthelesssigned it into law for the sake of national unity."

More: Liz Cheney is weighing a 2024 presidential bid. Here's how the Wyoming Republican got here.

Toward the end of Trumps time in office, Cheney voted in favor of overriding Trumps veto of the National Defense Authorization Act in late2020. In a press release backing the bill, she said it was needed to ensure hazard pay for military families, guard against cyber attacks and take measures against China.

Then she voted to impeach Trump on a charge of incitement of an insurrection following the Jan. 6th, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As reported by USA TODAY, Cheney said her vote to impeach Trump stemmed from her view that he "summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack."

"There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," Cheney said.

Trump was later acquitted by the Senate. Cheney went on to serve as vice chair of the House committee created to investigate the Jan. 6th attack.

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim thatCheney voted with Trump 100% of the time. FiveThirtyEight reported Cheney voted with Trump about93% of the time, but thetwo clashed on topics including Russian sanctions, appropriations legislation and a measure to override Trump's veto of a 2020 defense bill.

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Fact check: False claim Liz Cheney voted with Trump 100% of the time - USA TODAY