Rep. Liz Cheney converted her House campaign finance committee to a federal-leadership political action committee hours after losing her primary, a Federal Election Commission filing shows.
Harriet Hageman, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, defeated Cheney in Wyoming's Republican primary election on Tuesday evening. Cheney had pushed back against Trump's baseless 2020 election-fraud claims and voted to impeach him over the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
The FEC document, which was filed at 2:01 a.m. ET Wednesday, also showed that Cheney had changed her House campaign committee, "Liz Cheney for Wyoming," to a leadership PAC named "The Great Task."
A Cheney spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday that in the coming weeks, the congresswoman "will be launching an organization to educate the American people about the ongoing threat to our Republic, and to mobilize a unified effort to oppose any Donald Trump campaign for president."
Members of Congress and other notable political figures frequently use leadership PACs to raise money toward advancing their political agendas.
Cheney can use her new leadership PAC to raise money, bankroll her travel, make political contributions, and as nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets notes, "fund expenses that are ineligible to be paid by campaign committees or congressional offices."
No matter the outcome of Tuesday's primary, Cheney had repeatedly made clear that she is committed to continuing her fight against Trump and trying to move the Republican Party away from him. In her concession speech on Tuesday evening, she told her crowd of supporters: "Now, the real work begins."
During her remarks, Cheney also said she could have "easily" won the election if she went along with Trump's election-fraud claims, but that she was not willing to do that.
"It would have required that I enabled his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take," she said.
Cheney has also been pressed about making a run for the White House in 2024. In a Wednesday interview, she said she was "thinking about" it.
"I'm not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it's something that I'm thinking about, and I'll make a decision in the coming months," she told TODAY.
