Oath and Honor

The largest argument in Oath and Honor is that American constitutional democracy held in late 2020 and early 2021 by a much thinner margin than most citizens appreciated at the time, and that the institutional, legal, and political conditions that allowed the attempt to overturn the election have not been resolved. Cheney's book is both a record of what happened and a warning that the same architecture of lies, pressure on officials, fake elector schemes, and inflamed crowds remains available to anyone willing to use it. The remedy she proposes is not partisan but civic: that voters, lawmakers, and party leaders across the political spectrum recommit themselves to the simple, unglamorous norms of honest elections and peaceful transfers of power, and that they refuse to grant political authority to anyone who has shown a willingness to subvert those norms. Whether her warning is heeded, she suggests, will determine not just the fate of the Republican Party but the durability of the constitutional system itself.

Liz Cheney is an American attorney, author, and former Republican congresswoman who represented Wyoming's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023. Born in 1966, she is the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, and she grew up immersed in the practice of national politics. She earned her undergraduate degree at Colorado College and her law degree at the University of Chicago. Before entering elected politics, she worked at the State Department under both Republican administrations, focusing on Middle East policy and democracy promotion, and she also worked in private legal practice.

In Congress, Cheney rose quickly to become chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking position in House Republican leadership. After January 6, 2021, she became one of the most prominent Republican critics of Donald Trump, voted in favor of his second impeachment, and served as vice chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack. Her stance led to her removal from leadership in May 2021 and her loss in the Wyoming Republican primary in August 2022 to a Trump-endorsed challenger. Since leaving Congress, she has continued her public advocacy through the Great Task PAC, public speaking, and political commentary. Oath and Honor, published in 2023, is her account of that period and her argument about what it means for the future of American democracy.