(USA Features) The acting director of the Bureau of Land Management during former President Donald Trump’s administration will give a speech in his home state of Wyoming Thursday evening where he is expected to hint strongly that he will launch a GOP primary bid against Rep. Liz Cheney.
Perry Pendley’s challenge, if it comes, would be the latest in a series of other challengers who have already stepped up to file for her seat after she fell out of favor with state Republicans for her decision in Jan. to support impeachment.
“Cheney, the third-ranking lawmaker in House GOP leadership, was the most high-profile of the 10 House Republicans who voted in January to impeach then-President Donald Trump,” Fox News reported exclusively Thursday.
“Cheney immediately came under verbal attack by Trump and his allies and remains at the top of his list of Republican enemies he hopes to topple in the 2022 midterms,” the network added.
Pendley is a native of Wyoming who once served as a deputy secretary in the Interior Department under President Ronald Reagan. He is scheduled to speak and take questions at an event with the University of Wyoming’s College of Law chapter of the Federalist Society, Fox News noted.
“Wyoming needs a congressional delegation united in the fight for economic survival. It is a fight that must be waged with 100% of our energies, for 100% of the time, in 100% of the arenas available,” Pendley will say, according to an excerpt of his remarks obtained by the network.
“We have no time for distractions whether they are with forums or issues of marginal and little real interest to Wyoming. We have no time for warring against one another, against fellow Republicans, or against a former president who served Wyoming well,” Pendley will note.
Pendley was appointed as BLM deputy director in July of 2019 and elevated to acting director not long afterward but he was never confirmed by the Senate. He eventually moved to a different role at BLM after a federal judge ruled in September that he had served as director unlawfully.
Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House, has been lambasted by Trump-allied Republicans and her own state party over her impeachment vote.
The most recent polling indicate she is highly vulnerable to a primary.