Former Rep. Cheney to Serve as Professor at Univ. of Virginia Center for Politics

By Jacob Gardenswartz

Special to the Wyoming Truth

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) can add a new title to her resume: professor.

The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics announced Wednesday that Cheney accepted an appointment to serve as the center’s professor of practice, a new role in the institution effective immediately.

“Preserving our constitutional republic is the most important work of our time, and our nation’s young people will play a crucial role in this effort,” Cheney said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “I look forward to working with students and colleagues at the Center to advance the important work they and others at the University of Virginia are doing to improve the health of democracy here and around the world.”

“I hope my work with the Center for Politics and the broader community at the University of Virginia will contribute to finding lasting solutions that not only preserve but strengthen our democracy,” she added.

The three-term congresswoman and former vice president’s daughter was ousted last year after an intense primary battle against fellow Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who went on to replace Cheney as Wyoming’s sole representative in the U.S. House. Representatives for Hageman did not respond to an inquiry about Cheney’s appointment.

Though she had once served as the third highest-ranking Republican in the House — with some even suggesting she could one day be House Speaker — Cheney’s public and persistent condemnations of former President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection quickly made her a persona non grata both in Wyoming and in the Republican Party.

Since losing her reelection bid, Cheney has continued to make the case against Trump and others who defended his unfounded claims of a “stolen election.” Late last year, she told NBC’s Chuck Todd that “no one of any party should be voting for people who are election deniers” — a group she said includes Hageman, who has said she believes the 2020 election was “rigged.”  

Last year Cheney also formed a leadership PAC entitled “The Great Task” to support candidates running against election deniers, and went on to endorse several Democrats in the 2022 midterms.

Cheney’s professorship will mark her return to Virginia, where she attended high school in the D.C. suburbs, and also her return to UVA, where she participated in a forum on the first anniversary of the Capitol attack.

“We have to be willing to face directly what happened, and we have to be sure that we do everything in our power to ensure it never happens again and to hold people accountable,” Cheney said.