Liz Cheney may make an excellent U.S. senator for the state of Wyoming. But not right now and not in this manner. Cheney has officially withdrawn from her primary challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, and that’s a good thing.
It is simply not a productive use of Republican time, money, and energy to mount primary challenges to incumbents whose only sin is being marginally less conservative than their challenger. Details here.
The National Journal rates Enzi as the fourth most conservative Republican in the Senate with a conservative score of 90.2. That total is only 5.8 points less than the most conservative Senate Republican, Tom Coburn.
Enzi’s score is actually higher than that of retired Sen. Jim DeMint (86.2), who retired to head the conservative Heritage Action group and now criticizes wayward Republicans.
Cheney released a prepared statement that said she was dropping out due to “serious health issues [that] have recently arisen in our family.” Wags have pointed out that in reality it was her campaign that was on death’s doorstep — recent polling put her far behind Enzi and she’s been dealing with charges of carpet bagging — but regardless of the reason Cheney’s dropping out is good for the party.
Republicans simply don’t need these intramural slugfests that only serve to distract the party from what should be our primary goal in 2014: taking back the Senate and maintaining control of the House.
We need everyone concentrating on raising money and doing volunteer work for good GOP candidates and their campaigns. And that includes Liz Cheney.
I’m sure she has a bright future ahead of her and she comes from a family with a strong record of service. But right now she and Wyoming both are better served by re-electing Mike Enzi to the Senate.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.