Liz Cheney to Vote For Kamala Harris in 2024 Election

In a talk with Duke University students, former Representative Liz Cheney said she is parting with her party and voting for Vice Kamala Harris for president.

The Republican politician spoke with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, sharing that she will be parting from her party’s presidential nominee and instead voting for the Vice President.

“As a conservative, as someone that believes in our constitution, I have thought deeply about this,” Cheney told the students in a video spreading on social media. “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I am voting for Kamala Harris.”

Cheney also encouraged the North Carolina-based students to not write in names on the ballot this November.

“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize—not only the danger that Trump poses, something I think that should prevent people from voting for him—but I don’t think we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said.

Cheney was at Duke for an address focused on “Defending Democracy.” Peter Feaver, a political science professor, moderated the event and asked Cheney if she was going to make “history” by endorsing a candidate.

The auditorium erupted with applause and Cheney received a standing ovation after her response.

Quickly, Trump’s campaign posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, sharing a television clip of Cheney speaking with Fox News. She is heard calling Harris a “centrist.”

“The American people are going to look at the substance of this. They’re going to look at what she said in the past. They’re going to look at what she said in the primary election,” Cheney said. “It’s very clear she is a radical liberal.”

Cheney, however, has been an outspoken critic of Trump in the past. She wrote Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning about her experience during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The Wyoming representative shared her insider account of the insurrection, discussing potential residual threats. The book is meant to serve as a warning about power and how it can endanger American democracy.

Cheney was the vice chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

She had spoken out against Trump and voted to impeach him, which hit her with a lot of backlash from her fellow Republicans.

“You’ve just got such a defiant attitude,” Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina told her.

In Trump’s new book, Save America, he discussed Cheney. A photo of Cheney smiling with Trump at the White House is accompanied by a note from Trump stating she used to ask him for “baskets of goodies,” but that he “ultimately said ‘NO.'”

That didn’t stop Cheney, however, from speaking out in the past years.

Trump had posted to Truth Social accusing Cheney of “treason.” In turn, she hit back at Trump in a post to X.

“Donald – This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult – and are not fit for office.”

Cheney has also said Trump would attempt to stay in power beyond four years if he was elected to a second term.

In March, Cheney spoke at Iowa’s Drake University and rallied against Trump’s “delay tactics” in trying to push his Jan. 6 and election interference court cases until after the presidential election.

“Every time Donald Trump says that the select committee, you know, somehow suppressed evidence, or that there are secret or hidden evidence, people should know that Donald Trump has all of that evidence,” Cheney said.

Recently, she told NBC’s Today that defeating Trump is going to “require a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents, and that’s what I intend to be a part of.”

Cheney’s voting decision in North Carolina is eventful, as the state is one of the seven battlegrounds this election.

One of the closest races, according to FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast, is North Carolina, where Vice President Kamala Harris briefly overtook Donald Trump last week before the former president retook the lead. He is now 0.4 points ahead of Harris in the state, 45.9 percent to her 45.6 percent.

North Carolina, which Trump won in 2020 and 2016, is also the third most likely state to be the tipping point state in the November election, with a 10.7 percent chance of giving the Electoral College winner their 270th vote, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told CNN that there is “an incredible opportunity for Kamala Harris to win North Carolina” because the state’s voters “will carefully consider each candidate, zigzagging their way down the ballot.”

And in a reflection of the enthusiasm about Harris’ historic candidacy among Democrats, new Democratic voter registrations have surpassed Republican registrations for the third week in a row in the state. Even still, North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes have only once gone to a Democrat since 1980.

Trump, who is set to visit Charlotte on September 8, has already made two trips to North Carolina since Biden exited the presidential race. His most recent appearance was on August 21. During his first outdoor rally since surviving an assassination attempt, Trump spoke from behind bulletproof glass at an Asheboro event, where he focused on national security issues.

Harris, on the other hand, visited Raleigh just before the DNC to unveil her economic agenda, focused on “building up our middle class.” Her key proposals included providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, implementing a federal ban on grocery price gouging and offering tax incentives to stimulate the construction of affordable housing.

Follow Newsweek‘s live U.S. Election blog for updates.

Update 09/04/24 7:01 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.