Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has responded to rumors she might be selected for Kamala Harris‘ cabinet if the Democrat wins the presidency in November.
Cheney was interviewed by WFAA alongside Colin Allred, the Democrat challenging incumbent Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race. Cheney has endorsed Allred.
Vice President Harris told CNN on August 29 she could appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected president.
“I would, I think. I think it’s really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” Harris said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences.
“And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
In Cheney’s WFAA interview, journalist Teresa Woodard asked her: “I know Vice President Harris has said she would put a Republican in her cabinet if she were elected. Have you had any discussions with her about that?”
Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney in the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C., July 21, 2022. Cheney has responded to rumors that she could be selected for Kamala Harris’s cabinet, if the Democrat wins the presidency in November.
J. Scott Applewhite/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“I have not,” Cheney replied. “I’m very focused on November 5th and I’m making sure that we elect good candidates like Colin Allred.”
Cheney is a vocal Donald Trump critic who lost her seat in Wyoming after supporting his second impeachment and serving as vice chair on the January 6 Select Committee.
Both she, and her father former Vice President Dick Cheney have endorsed Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential election.
Newsweek has contacted Cheney, Harris, and Cruz via email for comment.
“The choice for the people of Texas is just a very clear one,” Cheney said. “When there’s a candidate who is as competent and somebody of the kind of character as Colin, I think it’s very important that we support him.”
“I also know Ted Cruz, you know, I’ve known him for over 20 years, and I know that he will say anything if it serves his own political purpose. And the nation is at a moment where we need public servants who are men and women of goodwill, who are men and women who will do the right thing.”
Texas is a traditional Republican stronghold. Cruz has held the Senate seat since 2012, while Texans have backed the Republican presidential nominee in every election since 1976.
But some recent polling shows the Senate race is tight. A survey of 800 voters released Friday by Texas Public Opinion Research suggested the Allred trails Cruz by 4 points (47 percent to 43 percent). The pollster reported a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
Although Trump controversially mocked Cruz and his wife during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Cruz has become one of Trump’s most loyal allies in Congress.
Before Congress was set to certify the 2020 election results, Cruz said that he planned to reject electors in certain states where voter fraud claims were being floated. Cruz stood by his decision on January 6, 2021, and objected to certifying the electoral votes of Arizona before a mob of Trump supporters violently breached the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to halt the proceedings.
