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Analysis
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) stuck the proverbial knife in a former ally’s back to win her seat in Congress.
Last year, Hageman defeated Liz Cheney in the Republican primary. She won because Cheney refused to go along with former President Donald Trump’s election fraud lies and acknowledged the Capitol riot was an attempt to overthrow democracy.
Even though Ballotpedia reports she worked on Cheney’s 2014 campaign, Hageman had no problem turning on her longtime ally, even if it meant repeating Trump’s lies about a rigged election.
It worked and she won.
This wasn’t Hageman’s first political rodeo. She unsuccessfully ran for Wyoming governor in 2018. An archive of her now deleted campaign website shows that she campaigned on opposing abortion and legalizing marijuana, and advocating killing wolves.
Her website boasted that, due to her work, Wyomingans can shoot wolves from helicopters and on sight in some areas. Imagine being proud of that.
During her 2018 campaign, Hageman was adamant that kids should be taught a “robust school curriculum” that included state and United States history.
Hageman has clearly abandoned this commitment to history. During her recent campaign, she wrote on Facebook that critical race theory—studying history through a lens that includes the impacts of slavery and systemic racism—is “anti-American propaganda.”
Soon after she beat Cheney in the primary, Hageman veered deeper into far-right conspiracy theoryland by claiming, “Joe Biden is the largest or the most destructive human trafficker in our history.” Human trafficking is an obsession of QAnon followers.
In another nod to conspiracy theories, in September, Hageman tweeted ominously that she was “looking forward to spending time with [Dr. Anthony Fauci] very soon in a committee room.” Conspiracy theorists love blaming Fauci for the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions meant to slow its spread and save lives.
Now that she’s in Congress, Hageman has used her newfound power to pick Twitter battles with a Wyoming legislator who resisted her demand that the state pass transphobic and homophobic legislation similar to that passed in Florida. She’s also already endorsed a candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary: Trump, naturally.
Online, you can find Hageman on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Truth Social.
Dirtiest Delete
Hageman isn’t one for deleting posts, but she did delete an entire campaign website.
While she may well still stand by her position on shooting wolves, it’s probably for the best that the site only exists in the archives and our memory.
