Liz Cheney wants to make sure voters know how deep her Wyoming roots are — just in case anyone tries to convince them otherwise.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney released her first television ad in her Senate primary against incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Enzi on Thursday. In the 60-second spot, she repeatedly stresses her long ties to Wyoming, clearly hoping to combat carpetbagging charges after she recently moved back to the Cowboy State after living and working in the D.C. suburbs.
“Our daughter, Grace, is 13, and we just can’t keep her off a horse. It’s little wonder why — she and her four siblings are 5th generation Wyomingites,” the ad begins, showing footage of Cheney with her children and husband. “Twenty years ago, Phil and I were married here in Wyoming, and today we’re raising our kids here on the same Wyoming values I grew up with.”
Cheney boasts that her family’s ties to the state are long and storied — first settling there after walking the Mormon trail, moving to the Salt Creek oil fields. The former state department official notes that her grandmother became one of the first female deputy sheriffs in the state. Even showing class pictures from elementary and middle school.
Cheney also reminisces of her time traveling with her father when she was 12 as he ran for Congress. “We campaigned together as a family all across Wyoming. And we learned a lot about what it means to earn the vote, one person at a time.”
And she gets in a not-so-subtle dig at the 69-year-old Enzi, saying, “It’s time for a new generation of leaders to step up to the plate.”
Cheney has an uphill climb in unseating the three-term senator. According to a poll commissioned by a pro-Enzi super PAC, American Principles Fund, Enzi has a 52 point lead over Cheney that’s grown over the summer, Politico reported. But often polling in small states like Wyoming can be highly volatile, especially so far out from the August 2014 primary.
APF, led by Mike Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has already run ads hitting Cheney over gay marriage, claiming she’s soft on the issue. Cheney has come out in opposition to same-sex marraige despite the fact that her sister, Mary, is gay and married. She and her wife are raising their two children.
According to Politico, the $55,838 buy will run for the next nine days, with $32,500 coming in the Casper media market.
Jessica Taylor