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Who is Harriet Hageman, the woman who beat Liz Cheney in the Wyoming House race?
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Incumbent Wyoming Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney was defeated Tuesday after she broke from her party to criticize former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
She lost the race for Wyoming's at-large congressional district to Harriet Hageman, an attorney who supported Cheney in her race for the House in 2016.
While there is not extensive official information on Hageman, this is what we know:
She has a background as an attorney
Hageman, a Wyoming native, received both her undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Wyoming.
She began her career as a law clerk for federal appeals Judge James Barrett, and went on to practice law privately in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska, according to Iowa State University.
Her specialty as an attorney was natural resources and water litigation. She also represented the federal government in many private property cases and eventually opened her own firm, according to Wyoming Public Media.
She first ran for public office in 2018
Hageman, whose father Jim Hageman was a Wyoming state representative for more than 20 years, first joined the political sphere when she unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018.
Hageman said in a statement that she decided to run against Cheney in the House because Cheney "betrayed Wyoming, betrayed the country and she betrayed me."
Cheney was ostracized by senior members of the Republican Party for voting to impeach Trump and later criticizing him for his handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Roughly 70% of Wyoming voted for Trump and Cheney's repudiation of him became the red line for so many GOP voters who enthusiastically backed her not long ago.
Trump eventually officially endorsed Hageman, a former Republican National Committee member for the state of Wyoming.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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