- Republican Rep. Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming primary. But it's not the end of her political career.
- It will fuel her to focus on January 6 work, says one political strategists.
- Cheney told her supporters following her loss that now the "real work" begins.
Republican Liz Cheney's Wyoming primary loss has emboldened her mission to keep former President Donald Trump from holding office again. And her position on the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack gives her a platform that captivates national attention.
Congress will soon return from its summer recess and the committee is expected to hold at least one more public hearing, possibly more.
Her primary loss will give her more time to further her work on the investigation and build a case against Trump, said Rina Shah, a Republican strategist.
"She will continually get bolder because now what she has got to lose? It's certainly not an election," Shah said.
Following her primary loss to Trump-endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman, Cheney told her supporters "the primary election is over…But now the real work begins."
Since June, the committee has held eight public hearings so far to present evidence of what occurred during the US Capitol attack and show Trump's direct role in encouraging the violence that took place that day as he attempted to overturn the 2020 election results.
The committee does not have the authority to prosecute Trump. But it can use its public hearings and findings to put more public pressure on the Justice Department to act.
The committee has said it has evidence that Trump and his campaign team carried out an "unconstitutional" attempt to obstruct Congress' election certification process and "engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States."
During the public hearings, the committee also alluded to other laws Trump and his associates could have broken, including wire fraud, inciting a rebellion, and witness tampering. Cheney, who is weighing a presidential run in 2024, has played a key role in revealing some of these developments from the committee's investigation.
During a hearing on July 12, she said that the committee was presented with new evidence that Trump tried to call a January 6 witness—an action that could have constituted witness tampering.
The Wyoming lawmaker did not disclose the witness's identity but said the person "alerted their lawyer, who alerted us." She later added that the January 6 panel referred the matter to the Justice Department.
"She's been passionately focused on the work of the committee from the beginning, and it's hard for me to see her even intensifying her commitment to it," said Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the panel.
Cheney's office declined to provide a statement to Insider on this matter. But directed Insider to recent interviews she conducted, including one with ABC News on August 21 where she said she would finish out her time in Congress representing the people of Wyoming and finishing her work on the panel.
"We have a tremendous amount of work left to do on the January 6th Committee," she said.
The committee is expected in September to resume holding public hearings on the findings of its investigation. Raskin said the committee hasn't ruled out the possibility of holding additional hearings as more people have come forward. Next month, the committee is expected to issue a preliminary report of its findings from the investigation.
