Measured by the intensity of the media glare, Tuesday night unquestionably belonged to Liz Cheney’s bid for political survival, as the conservative Republican with the dynastic name fell in a race defined by her vote to impeach Donald Trump and her role in the investigations into the Jan. 6 insurrection. But Trump’s allies clinched another milestone on election night.
Chuck Gray, a Wyoming lawmaker, became the first election denier running in 2022 to effectively secure promotion to secretary of state, the chief office that oversees elections in the state.
Boosted by Trump’s endorsement, Gray prevailed in a competitive GOP primary to replace retiring incumbent Ed Buchanan; he beat fellow lawmaker Tara Nethercott 50 to 41 percent. His path forward is unobstructed since he is running unopposed in the general election. There will be no Democrat on the November ballot. An independent candidate still has until Aug. 29 to file a petition to run; the state’s election division told Bolts that no independent candidate had been certified as of Thursday. Someone could also mount an uphill write-in bid.
Gray’s win in the smallest state in the union comes as politicians similarly aligned with Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential race are advancing toward these critical election offices all around the country, including in critical swing states like Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. …
Gray has outright called the 2020 presidential election “clearly rigged” and has echoed Trump’s specific lies about the race. He has developed relationships with like-minded Republicans elsewhere in the country who are pushing to audit results. He traveled to Arizona last year to observe an audit ordered by state Republicans—the operation ended up uncovering no major problems—and he has sought to bring that approach to Wyoming, a state dominated by Republicans that Trump won by 43 percentage points in 2020.
Gray also proposed legislation last year to empower the state’s department of audit to audit election results, but his fellow Republican lawmakers rejected the bill last year, faulting him for disparaging the work of local election officials.