WASHINGTON — As one of many nation’s greatest Democratic donors, the movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg helped make Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton into Hollywood darlings. However this 12 months, he’s backing a shock candidate: Consultant Liz Cheney, the staunchly conservative Wyoming Republican.
“We agree on little, if something,” Mr. Katzenberg mentioned in an interview. “However she has finished one thing that very, only a few folks in historical past have finished, which is she’s put her nation over occasion and politics to face in protection of our Structure.”
He was referring to Ms. Cheney’s management position on the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and her condemnation of former President Donald J. Trump, whom she has known as “a home menace that we now have by no means confronted earlier than.”
To assist Ms. Cheney bolster her probabilities in Wyoming’s upcoming Republican major — she is going through a Trump-backed opponent — Mr. Katzenberg and his spouse have donated greater than $43,000 to her marketing campaign and teams supporting her.
Mr. Katzenberg mentioned his contributions went past that sum however declined to offer additional particulars, saying solely that he was speaking up Ms. Cheney, the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee, to “anyone and all people that may hearken to me, with any occasion affiliation.”
Mr. Katzenberg is considered one of various Democrats and independents who’re crossing ideological traces to help Ms. Cheney, who has develop into a pariah in her personal occasion for her break with Mr. Trump over Jan. 6 and her criticism of the Home Republican management.
A supporter of Mr. Trump for nearly everything of his time period, Ms. Cheney — who opposes abortion, helps conservative judges and desires to develop mining and vitality drilling even in environmentally delicate areas — voted in step with him 93 p.c of the time, in keeping with FiveThirtyEight.
Most Democratic donors are profoundly out of step with Ms. Cheney on these points and others. However the Democrats supporting her say they’ve been impressed by her braveness in opposing the previous president — whom she voted to question after the Jan. 6 assault — and standing up for the peaceable switch of energy.
“Cheney is crucial politician in America proper now,” mentioned Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political strategist who advises the LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a significant Democratic donor whom Mr. Mehlhorn mentioned had quietly begun supporting Ms. Cheney.
The billionaire hedge fund supervisor Seth Klarman, an unbiased with liberal views on social insurance policies who has given to Ms. Cheney’s marketing campaign in current months, mentioned in an e-mail to potential donors that the congresswoman was “maybe the strongest voice within the Republican Occasion talking out in regards to the significance of upholding the Structure.”
Key Revelations From the Jan. 6 Hearings
Ms. Cheney is considered one of only a few politicians to whom Jane Fraser, a registered Democrat who’s the chief govt of Citigroup, has given straight throughout this election cycle. A spokesman for Ms. Fraser declined to remark. Citigroup was the primary main financial institution to supply workers paid journey to obtain abortion companies this 12 months.
But it would take greater than cash to salvage Ms. Cheney’s precarious place in Wyoming, and the inflow of help from high-profile Democratic donors doesn’t essentially assist her politically in her state.
Polling means that she got here into the summer season trailing Harriet Hageman, her rival within the Republican major, which might be held on Aug. 16. Final month, Ms. Cheney’s marketing campaign despatched mailers to registered Democrats with directions on the way to change events forward of the first — a transfer that might enable them to vote for her.
Ms. Cheney had beforehand mentioned she wouldn’t take such a step, and it’s unclear how profitable the gambit might be in a state the place the variety of registered Republicans dwarfs that of Democrats.
Ms. Cheney, who was ousted final 12 months from her management submit because the No. 3 Home Republican, could also be wanting past this race. She has refused to rule out a presidential marketing campaign in 2024, throughout which she might use among the funds that she has already raised.
At the same time as Ms. Cheney faces an uphill battle in her congressional race, the Jan. 6 hearings have given her a political lifeline for the long run — and, if she loses her major, one thing to level to as an evidence for her defeat. A spokesman for Ms. Cheney declined to touch upon her standing within the race or her crossover donors.
Ms. Cheney’s re-election marketing campaign raised greater than $10 million by way of the top of March, considerably greater than Ms. Hageman. A few of these donations got here from veterans of Republican administrations like Michael Chertoff, who was homeland safety secretary below President George W. Bush, and Theodore B. Olson, who was solicitor normal for Mr. Bush and likewise labored for President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Chertoff and Mr. Olson co-hosted a fund-raiser this 12 months for Ms. Cheney with Bobbie Kilberg, who was a White Home aide below Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush, at a Northern Virginia lodge.
However Democratic {dollars} have been trickling in to Ms. Cheney as effectively. Her criticism of fellow Republicans who went together with Mr. Trump’s election lies and her questioning of witnesses like the previous White Home aide Cassidy Hutchinson have additional raised her nationwide profile.
Mr. Klarman, who runs the Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund, is holding a digital reception for Ms. Cheney on Tuesday, the identical day that the Jan. 6 committee will maintain its subsequent listening to.
“I strongly help Congresswoman Cheney’s bid for re-election, as we share a deep dedication to defending American democracy and the rule of regulation,” Mr. Klarman wrote in an emailed invitation to the occasion. He added: “I’m resolved to do every thing doable to ship a powerful message by holding her in Congress. We have to stand behind Liz and ship a rebuke to probably the most excessive factions within the Republican Occasion.”
In a press release, Mr. Klarman acknowledged his coverage variations with Ms. Cheney, given his liberal-leaning views on abortion entry, gun management and voting rights measures. “If we don’t save democracy, every thing else goes to hell,” he mentioned.
Mr. Mehlhorn, who advises Mr. Hoffman and different anti-Trump donors of all political stripes, shared an analogous rationale for supporting Ms. Cheney.
“Liz Cheney is our enemy, so to talk, on each different problem,” he mentioned. “However on this problem she is so aligned with us.”
“Our idea is that if that’s the dividing line — that every one politics is about in the event you’re for the peaceable switch of energy or not — the governing coalition would be the peaceable switch of energy coalition,” Mr. Mehlhorn added. “And if you need that, you rally round Liz Cheney, who’s making it crucial problem personally.”
Mr. Hoffman has given to Ms. Cheney’s marketing campaign, in keeping with marketing campaign finance data. He has additionally given to teams supporting her, Mr. Mehlhorn mentioned, such because the Republican Accountability Challenge, which helps Republican members of Congress who known as out Mr. Trump’s election lies and opposes those that countenanced them.
“Liz Cheney demonstrates unbelievable integrity, standing for America,” Mr. Hoffman mentioned in a press release.
Smaller-dollar donors have additionally been drawn to Ms. Cheney.
Khanh Nguyen, a Silicon Valley engineer who has given repeatedly to California Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Consultant Adam B. Schiff, describes himself as a centrist with a smattering of liberal-leaning viewpoints. However as an immigrant from Vietnam, the place he recalled violence and strongman politics because the norm, he mentioned he was appalled by the occasions of Jan. 6.
“It was stunning to me that solely 10 Republicans voted to question Trump for Jan. 6,” Mr. Nguyen mentioned. He has donated to Ms. Cheney, he mentioned, as a result of “I wish to give her all of the instruments she must win.”
“She’s one of many only a few voices that talk out in opposition to Trump, communicate out for democracy and really have an opportunity to affect the occasion — the Republican Occasion — in a greater route,” he mentioned.
Vint Cerf, a longtime Democrat and an govt at Google, mentioned buddies who disagree with Ms. Cheney on coverage issues had chided him for giving cash to her marketing campaign. However his $2,900 donation to her re-election bid was a present of gratitude greater than something, he mentioned.
“As I checked out what Liz Cheney did, which was courageous within the face of monumental strain from others in her occasion, to face as much as them and say, ‘No, that is fallacious,’ I used to be impressed sufficient by that to say, ‘ what? She deserves help for that,’” he recalled.
Kenneth P. Vogel contributed reporting.
