Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., benefited from a massive fundraising haul in the first-quarter of 2022, but a closer look reveals the vast majority of that money was sent her way by heavily Democratic areas and not her home state of Wyoming.
Cheney raised almost $3 million in the first quarter of 2022 and brought her total fundraising haul to over $10 million, with the campaign boasting nearly $7 million cash on hand. But that vast majority of those dollars didn't come from her home state, with just 3.8% of the cash coming from Wyoming compared to 96.2% elsewhere in the country, according to data compiled by Open Secrets.
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Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, has become a controversial figure within the Republican Party. She was removed from her House GOP leadership position last year and eventually censured by the Republican National Committee for her participation in the Democrat-led January 6 Committee.
Those developments were not well received by the lawmaker's constituents in Wyoming, a state Trump won by nearly 64 points in 2020. Cheney's newfound unpopularity opened the door to a primary challenge from Harriet Hageman, a 2018 Wyoming gubernatorial candidate who has earned the endorsements of Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty, R-Calif., with one poll showing the challenger up 20 points on the incumbent lawmaker.
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The potentially dim prospects for reelection have attracted a lot of money to Cheney's campaign, but much of that money has come from areas more typically associated with Democratic voters.
The top five metropolitan areas where Cheney received donations include Washington, D.C., New York City, Dallas, Bridgeport, Conn., and Boston, according to Open Secrets data. The top zip codes where donations originated include D.C. suburbs such as McClean, Va., Alexandria, Va, and Washington, D.C. itself. Other popular zip codes included New York City, Dallas, Greenwich, Conn., and Winnetka, Ill., a Chicago suburb. The data shows that Cheney also received over three times more money from California, $669.43K, than she did from her home state of Wyoming, $217.68k.
Cheney's campaign declined to comment on this story.
The money has put Hageman, who raised $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2022, at a severe fundraising disadvantage. Hageman's campaign has raised just over $2 million total and currently has a little over $1 million cash on hand, but the campaign noted earlier this month that no non-incumbent Republican topped their first quarter haul.
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Hageman, who in the past has supported and served as an adviser to Cheney, noted that her campaign is relying on grassroots support. The challenger argued that she has received over 21,000 donations to her campaign, with the average first quarter donation coming in at $84.
"It is an honor to have such support and I pledge to always reflect the views and values of the people of Wyoming when I am in Congress," Hageman said in a statement earlier this month. "This is Wyoming’s seat in the House, not one individual’s."