US Republican Liz Cheney has lost her seat in Congress to an election conspiracy theorist, but vowed to fight on and do "whatever it takes" to ensure that former US president Donald Trump is not returned to power.
Once considered Republican royalty, the politician from Wyoming has become a pariah in the party over her membership on the congressional panel investigating the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol - and Mr Trump's role in fanning the flames.
"I have said since 6 January that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office, and I mean it," Ms Cheney said in a concession speech after losing her bid at re-election.
Defeat for the 56-year-old daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney in the Wyoming Republican primary marks the end of the family's four-decade political association with one of the US's most conservative states.
The Republican nomination to contest November's midterms instead goes to 59-year-old solicitor Harriet Hageman - Mr Trump's hand-picked candidate who has amplified his false claims of a "rigged" 2020 election.
In her speech last night, Ms Cheney delivered a stark warning about the danger of Mr Trump's election fraud conspiracy theories, urging politicians on both sides of the aisle to join her fight to protect US democracy.
Speaking at a cattle ranch near Jackson, Ms Cheney sought to move quickly beyond her defeat, setting out what she said was "real work" of her effort to ensure Mr Trump never regains the White House.
She blamed the former president, who is embroiled in numerous criminal and civil investigations over alleged misconduct in office, for sending the deeply-divided US towards "crisis, lawlessness and violence" with his inflammatory rhetoric.
"No American should support election deniers, for any position of genuine responsibility, (because) their refusal to follow the rule of law will corrupt our future," she warned.
There is already speculation that Ms Cheney may challenge Mr Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 - or even run as an independent - and supporters were hoping her concession speech would double up as a blueprint for her political future.
She pointedly avoided addressing the issue, but had earlier told CBS that the primary - regardless of the result - would be "the beginning of a battle that is going to continue".
"We are facing a moment where our democracy really is under attack and under threat," she said.
Ms Cheney had framed her campaign as a battle for the soul of a party she is trying to save from the anti-constitutional forces of Trumpism.
She was the last of ten Republicans in the House of Representatives who backed Mr Trump's second impeachment to face primary voters.
Four retired rather than seek re-election, three lost to Trump-backed opponents, and only two - California's David Valadao and Dan Newhouse of Washington state - have made it through to November's midterm elections.
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