Citing "serious" family health concerns, Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has ended her Republican primary campaign challenge in Wyoming against the incumbent, Senator Mike Enzi.
First reported by CNN and confirmed by a public statement on Monday, Cheney said that as a "mother and a patriot" she will continue to defend "freedom" and protect "liberty" but that her campaign has come to an end.
CNN reports:
Cheney's surprising decision to jump into the race, an announcement made in a YouTube video last summer, roiled Republican politics in the Wyoming, a state that Dick Cheney represented in Congress for five terms before moving up the Republican food chain in Washington.
Enzi was a low-key presence in Washington who was elected in 1996 and, with few blemishes, amassed a conservative voting record in the Senate. He expressed public annoyance at Cheney's decision to mount a primary challenge. A number of his Senate colleagues quickly rallied to his side and pledged support for his re-election bid.
There was little public polling of the race, but two partisan polls released last year showed Enzi with a wide lead, an assessment mostly shared by GOP insiders watching the race.
And the Huffington Post adds:
Cheney faced an uphill battle throughout her brief campaign, fighting off criticism for running in a state in which she hadn't lived very long and faring poorly in the few public polls conducted after her announcement.
The campaign also sparked a notable family feud when Cheney asserted she was "not pro-gay marriage." The comment offended her sister, Mary Cheney, who wed her longtime partner in Washington, D.C., last year.
"For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage," Mary Cheney wrote in a Facebook post in September.
"Freedom means freedom for everyone," Mary Cheney continued. "That means that all families -- regardless of how they look or how they are made -- all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other."
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