Following last week’s endorsement of Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing) by Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, Slotkin’s challenger, state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) on Monday picked up the endorsement of the woman who beat Cheney in the August primary and will almost certainly take her seat in Congress next year.
Harriet Hageman called Barrett a “strong, conservative constitutionalist” during a conference call with reporters.
“What I’ve read about Elissa (is) that she has voted for over $10 trillion in additional spending, she has supported Joe Biden 100% of the time, and Nancy Pelosi 98% of the time,” said Hageman. “It just absolutely sickens me that Liz Cheney would be associated with her in any way whatsoever.”
Slotkin is being challenged by Barrett for the newly-drawn 7th Congressional District, which is centered around Lansing and includes all of Livingston County.
When Cheney gave her endorsement last week to Slotkin, she noted their service together on the House Armed Services Committee, where both have been vocal critics of House Republicans who have sought to downplay the attack of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 when pro-Trump rioters sought to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
“While Elissa and I have our policy disagreements, at a time when our nation is facing threats at home and abroad, we need serious, responsible, substantive members like Elissa in Congress,” said Cheney. “I encourage all voters in the 7th district – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents – to support her in this election.”
After a reporter on Monday’s call suggested that Cheney’s endorsement was in response to Barrett’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, Barrett called it a “classic example of the press being interested in something that the rest of this country isn’t. People are concerned about putting food on the table, gas in the car and a roof over their head.”
When asked by the Detroit Free Press last month about the results of the 2020 election, Barrett made claims that echoed those seeking to spread doubt about the outcome.
“It’s an unknowable thing. How many people mailed in absentee ballots that were ineligible to participate in the election?” he said. “We can’t know for sure what effect that had. That’s why we have to stop it before it happens.”
In fact, hundreds of audits and dozens of court cases, many of them decided by Trump-appointed judges, have found no evidence of widespread fraud. Trump’s own attorney general Bill Barr has called Trump’s claims “detached from reality.”
Hageman has been much more outspoken in her election-denying, calling it “rigged to make sure that President Trump could not get re-elected. What happened in 2020 was a travesty.”
