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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2017 and Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney in 2021.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Ozy Fusion Fest 2017; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Liz Cheney’s critics kicked her out of her leadership slot this week.
But the Wyoming Republican still has plenty of friends in the GOP establishment.
Many of them are George W. Bush alumni who donated money after she voted to impeach Trump.
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Rep. Liz Cheney’s GOP critics won their battle to oust the Wyoming Republican from her US House leadership position after she enraged her party by voting to impeach President Donald Trump and criticizing his claims of election fraud.
But as Cheney’s opponents — led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — have publicly repudiated the congresswoman, prominent donors and Republican politicians have been quietly funneling cash into her campaign coffers.
Former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, Trump administration Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk, former George W. Bush White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, and several former members of Congress donated to Cheney’s campaign account in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest campaign-finance reports.
Their donations are a signal of their quiet support for the embattled congresswoman who was unceremoniously dumped from her perch as chair of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 position in her party’s leadership in the House.
Read more: Anti-Trump Republicans spook GOP with the threat of a spinoff 3rd party
They may also be indicative of who’s on which side in a broader rift that’s taken shape within the GOP, which is pitting Trump loyalists against establishment Republicans hoping to distance themselves from the ex-president now that he’s out of office.
Even though Cheney’s impeachment vote cost her the leadership post, it appears to have been a fundraising boon — at least in the short term.
Cheney raised a total of $1.5 million in just the first quarter of 2021, her latest campaign-finance report showed. That’s about half of what she raised in the entire 2019-20 fundraising cycle and more than she brought in during the entire 2017-18 cycle, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
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That money could help Cheney fend off primary challengers in her 2022 reelection bid and allow her to spread the wealth to assist other candidates who have had her back during her intramural spat.
Jeb Bush, who lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential primary, donated $2,000 to Cheney’s congressional campaign on February 23.
Bush did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his support for Cheney, whose father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, served in the presidential administrations of Bush’s father and brother. Bush tweeted a news article in 2019 in which Cheney was quoted as calling it “shameful” to question the patriotism of the witnesses who testified ahead of Trump’s first impeachment.
Kimbal Musk, who serves on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX, on January 26 donated $2,800 to Cheney and each of the other nine House Republicans who had voted to impeach Trump. Musk tweeted an opinion article on May 7 titled, “Cheney confronts a House of cowards.” He did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment for this story.
Nielsen, who served as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary until she resigned in 2019, donated $1,000 to Cheney’s campaign on March 25, federal records showed. Nielsen has kept a low profile since she left the Trump administration; she listed her employment as a consultant with Lighthouse Strategies, where she advises tech companies about emerging threats.
Other notable donations to Cheney in the first quarter of this year include:
$5,600 from each of her parents, Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, on March 31.$1,000 from Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor who served as Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, on February 23.$1,000 from Susan Molinari, a former New York Republican congresswoman, on February 5.$5,000 from Joshua Bolten, who was White House chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration, on February 16. Bolten is now the president and CEO of the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate CEOs.$1,000 from Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a former Florida Republican congresswoman, on March 2.$2,000 from the congressional campaign of Martha Roby, a former Alabama Republican congresswoman, on March 8.$1,000 from Barbara Comstock, a former Virginia Republican congresswoman, on February 25.$1,000 from Mary Matalin, a prominent GOP strategist who served as a White House aide to Dick Cheney when he was vice president.Cheney’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story, nor did any of her high-profile GOP donors.
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