Liz Cheney – live: Biden calls Wyoming congresswoman after defeat and Trump attacks

Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor who has staged her race for the state’s open congressional seat as a revival of her political career after more than a decade spent out of elected office, will advance to the November general election.

Alaska, whose electorate approved a process being used for the first time in the state, has opted to do away with traditional party primary races in favour of ranked choice voting, which will instead send the top four candidates – regardless of political party – to the general election.

As of Tuesday morning, based on the votes tabulated, the House primary race in November will include Ms Palin, Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Nick Begich on the ballot. The fourth slot, however, remained too early to call.

US president Joe Biden reached out to Congresswoman Liz Cheney on Wednesday after she lost to Republican nominee and Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman.

Mr Biden called Ms Cheney after former president and her foe Donald Trump lost no time in going after her, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Trump had fired off a statement on his Truth Social platform, quipping that he believed that Ms Cheney would be “happier” in the “depths of political oblivion”.

Liz Cheney has said that she’s “thinking about” a White House run, in her first interview after losing her primary to a Trump-backed opponent.

“I believe that Donald Trump continues to pose a very grave threat and risk to our republic,” she told NBC’s Today. “I think that defeating him is going to require a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents – and that’s what I intend to be part of.”

Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC.

Representative Liz Cheney has fuelled speculation about a potential run for the White House after losing the Republican primary race from Wyoming on Tuesday.

Ms Cheney conceded defeat – but hinted at a presidential run – in a defiant speech by invoking Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S Grant to highlight the continuation of her fight against former president Donald Trump.

Sravasti Dasgupta watched the speech.

The Lincoln Project has spelled out the defeat of representative Liz Cheney in the primary election in Wyoming as the death of the Republican Party.

“Tonight, the nation marks the end of the Republican Party,” said the anti-Donald Trump group, which has antagonised the former president and his supporters through several viral videos, in a statement on Tuesday.

Sravasti Dasgupta reports:

The political defenestration of Liz Cheney highlighted stark divisions in the Republican Party on Tuesday night as backers and opponents reacted to her defeat.

Io Dodds reports on the reaction to the Wyoming primary result.

Let’s take a look at the most important moments in Liz Cheney’s career as the de facto leader of the anti-Trump GOP:

Representative Liz Cheney – the most high-profile and outspoken critic of Donald Trump in the GOP – delivered a defiant speech to supporters as she lost her primary race for the Republican nomination for Wyoming’s at-large district.

Ms Cheney remarked how she won her last primary in 2018 with more than 73 per cent of the vote and she could have easily done the same again.

“But it would’ve required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election,” she said. “That was a path I could not and would not take.”

Donald Trump lost no time in going after Liz Cheney on Tuesday after news networks made the official call that she would lose her 2022 primary and by extension her seat in Congress.

Mr Trump fired off a statement on his Truth Social platform, quipping that he believed that Ms Cheney would be “happier” in the “depths of political oblivion”.

John Bowden reports on the former president’s reaction to his foe’s primary defeat.

Donald Trump joined most mainstream political observers on Tuesday and declared Wyoming representative Liz Cheney’s Republican primary race a “big deal.”

The former president said the contest, in which Ms Cheney faces off against opponent Harriet Hageman, is a “referendum” on the US Capitol riots on January 6, and Ms Cheney’s attempts to investigate them as vice-chair of the January 6 select committee in Congress.