Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican adversary in Congress, was defeated in a GOP primary Tuesday, falling to a rival backed by the former president in a contest that reinforced his grip on the party’s base.

The third-term congresswoman and her allies entered the day downbeat about her prospects, aware that Trump’s backing gave Harriet Hageman considerable lift in the state where he won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign. Cheney was already looking ahead to a political future beyond Capitol Hill that could include a 2024 presidential run, potentially putting her on another collision course with Trump.

Cheney described her loss as the beginning of a new chapter in her political career as she addressed a small collection of supporters, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, on the edge of a vast field flanked by mountains and bales of hay.

“Our work is far from over,” she said Tuesday evening. Hinting at a presidential bid of her own, she later added, “I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it.”

The results — and the roughly 30-point margin — were a powerful reminder of the GOP’s rapid shift to the right. A party once dominated by national security-oriented, business-friendly conservatives like her father now belongs to Trump, animated by his populist appeal and, above all, his denial of defeat in the 2020 election.

Such lies, which have been roundly rejected by federal and state election officials along with Trump’s own attorney general and judges he appointed, transformed Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president to the clearest voice inside the GOP warning that he represents a threat to democratic norms. She's the top Republican on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, an attack she referenced in nodding to her political future.

“I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it," she said.

Four hundred miles to the east of Cheney’s concession speech, festive Hageman supporters gathered at a sprawling outdoor rodeo and Western culture festival in Cheyenne, many wearing cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans.

“Obviously we’re all very grateful to President Trump, who recognizes that Wyoming has only one congressional representative and we have to make it count,” said Hageman, a ranching industry attorney who had finished third in a previous bid for governor.

Echoing Trump’s conspiracy theories, she falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” as she courted his loyalists in the runup to the election.

Trump and his team celebrated Cheney’s loss, which may represent his biggest political victory in a primary season full of them. The former president called the results “a complete rebuke” of the Jan. 6 committee.

“Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” he wrote on his social media platform. “Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!”

The news offered a welcome break from Trump's focus on his growing legal entanglements. Just eight days earlier, federal agents executing a search warrant recovered 11 sets of classified records from the former president’s Florida estate.

Cheney’s defeat would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The daughter of a former vice president, she hails from one of the most prominent political families in Wyoming. And in Washington, she was the No. 3 House Republican, an influential voice in GOP politics and policy with a sterling conservative voting record.

Cheney will now be forced from Congress at the end of her third and final term in January. She is not expected to leave Capitol Hill quietly.

She will continue in her leadership role on the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack until it dissolves at the end of the year. And she is actively considering a 2024 White House bid — as a Republican or independent — having vowed to do everything in her power to fight Trump’s influence in her party.

With Cheney’s loss, Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are going extinct.

In all, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican House members backed Trump’s impeachment in the days after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress tried to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Just two of those 10 House members have won their primaries this year. After two Senate retirements, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is the only such Senate Republican on this year’s ballot.

Cheney was forced to seek assistance from the state’s tiny Democratic minority in her bid to pull off a victory. But Democrats across America, major donors among them, took notice. She raised at least $15 million for her election, a stunning figure for a Wyoming political contest.

Voters responded to the interest in the race. With a little more than half of the vote counted, turnout ran about 50% higher than in the 2018 Republican primary for governor.

If Cheney does ultimately run for president — either as a Republican or an independent — don’t expect her to win Wyoming’s three electoral votes.

“We like Trump. She tried to impeach Trump,” Cheyenne voter Chester Barkell said of Cheney on Tuesday. “I don’t trust Liz Cheney.”

And in Jackson, Republican voter Dan Winder said he felt betrayed by his congresswoman.

“Over 70% of the state of Wyoming voted Republican in the last presidential election and she turned right around and voted against us,” said Winder, a hotel manager. “She was our representative, not her own.”

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AP writers Thomas Peipert and Jill Colvin contributed.

Liz Cheney conceded defeat to rival Harriet Hageman in Wyoming's Republican primary on Tuesday.

Hageman's win would surely see former President Donald Trump gloat amid his continued campaign to remove his critics from the Republican Party persists.

While Cheney brought the fundraising prowess along with a higher profile as the public Jan. 6 hearings continued, Hageman, a lawyer in Wyoming's capital city Cheyenne, was boosted by a coveted endorsement from Trump, helping her beat the daughter of a former vice-president to win the state's House seat.

"We must be very clear-eyed about the threat we face, and about what is required to defeat it," Cheney said. "I have said since January six that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the oval office, and I mean it."

As Rep. Cheney braced for a loss to Trump-backed Hageman in the race for Wyoming's Congressional seat, the story seemed to focus heavily on the perceived consequences of leading public Jan. 6 hearings on former President Donald Trump, which is a story that her team optimistically brushed to the side.

A Cheney ally said, "This race is the first battle in a much larger and longer war that Liz is going to win because the future of the country depends on it,” Axios reported.

The election has been seen as a dramatic wrench in Cheney's larger plan after she was widely praised for her defiant spirit to do what she had considered an honorable task, attempting to hold former President Trump responsible for his actions on the day of the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol involving his supporters.

Some Republicans have supported Cheney in her mission. Still, many in the GOP have not broken away from their party's support for Trump to join in a bipartisan effort to closely examine the timeline of events in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

As the New York Times reported, surveys have shown that even though Cheney was able to fundraise far beyond Hageman and had spent much more on her campaign than her opponent, she stagnated well behind in the race.

Cheney told CBS News earlier on Tuesday, “Today, no matter what the outcome is, [it] is certainly the beginning of a battle that is going to continue.”

Cheney said after casting her vote, “We’re facing a moment where our democracy really is under attack and under threat. And those of us across the board — Republicans, Democrats and Independents who believe deeply in freedom and who care about the Constitution and the future of the country — have an obligation to put that above party.”

Hageman's campaign adviser Tim Murtaugh said they felt good about the election, "which is the culmination of nearly a year and almost 40,000 miles traveled within Wyoming," Axios reported.

The polls, which closed at 7 p.m. MT, 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, had more than just Wyoming on edge in the hours leading up to the final results. Cheney awaited her fate from Jackson, a town on Wyoming's western side with popular ski resorts. Hageman and her team watched from the state capital of Cheyenne in the southeast corner near Colorado's border, where she would ultimately give her speech after the win.

Murtaugh pushed back on Cheney's message and her team's optimism about their path, criticizing their focus on Jan. 6.

"Liz Cheney made the race all about her and her war on President Trump, but it was always about the people of Wyoming, who haven’t had the representation they deserve for the last 18 months," Murtaugh said.

Donald Trump responded to the win on his Truth Social platform, writing, "This is a wonderful result for America and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs. Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others."

In another race in Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict former President Trump of inciting an insurrection, was in a re-election battle of her own against Kelly Tshibaka, who is a former official in Alaska endorsed by Trump.

POWELL, Wyo.  — It’s a grizzly bear attack story that’s drawn national attention due to the courage and strength four college wrestling teammates displayed, leading to their survival.

The bear attacked one man in the Wyoming wilderness. His friend jumped in to save him and suffered the worst of it, but, as he recounted Wednesday, it was the right thing to do. In a desperate move that almost cost him his own life, he grabbed a fistful of the bear’s fur and pulled with all his might.

“I had to get it off. I had to do something. I couldn’t watch my friend get torn up right in front of me,” Kendell Cummings told MTN News in Powell, where he's recovering from his injuries.

When the teammates at Northwest College in northern Wyoming decided to head to the Bobcat-Houlihan Trail for some shed hunting Saturday, they never expected the turn it would take.

“We probably got five or six miles back in and it was getting a little late. We found a couple of sheds (antlers), all of us found a couple, and we were there, and we decided it’s time to turn around and go back to the truck,” Brady Lowry said.

That’s when the group separated. Cummings and Lowry traveled together and were apart from their other two teammates, Orrin Jackson and August Harrison, for around 10 minutes before the attack happened.

“I looked over at Kendell, and he was probably only about 15 yards away from me, and I was like, 'Dude, there are bear signs everywhere,' and right after I said that is when the crashing started happening in the trees ... The only thing I had time to say was, 'Bear! Bear!” Lowry said.

That’s when a grizzly bear lunged at Lowry, knocking him off a small ledge, leaving Cummings to watch in horror above the grizzly and his friend.

“It’s gnawing on me. I threw up my arm to protect the first initial bite, and its bite broke my arm, and it was just throwing me around down there, just doing whatever. I was helpless,” Lowry said.

That helpless moment is when his friend jumped into action by first by yelling and throwing anything he could find at the bear.

“Nothing was working. The bear was just focused on Brady, and it was getting Brady. So, I eventually got up there, right up next to him, and I grabbed the bear and pulled him off of Brady, and the bear kind of looked at me and took me out onto the ground and started attacking me,” Cummings said.

Lowry got up and ran to call 911 and find his friends, but Cummings didn’t know that and called out to make sure his teammate was okay.

“But when I called out to Brady, I think the bear knew that I was still in the area, and I was still a threat. So, it came back around and got me again,” Cummings said.

While the attacks were happening, Harrison and Jackson had lost sight of their friends and were completely unaware of what was going on.

“We finally get to the bottom of the basin, and we, when we finally found them, that’s when Brady was coming down the mountain yelling for help,” Harrison said.

Lowry followed with, “They finally got what I was saying to them and kind of hustled up to where I was at, and we were probably 100, 150 yards below where we got attacked by the bear.”

Jackson remembers the feeling of having to walk back up the mountain to search for Cummings.

“We thought Kendell was dead, really, and we were honestly prepared to go up there and find his body,” Jackson said.

But he wasn’t dead. He had gone limp during the second attack and believes that is why the bear left him alone. After three minutes of lying, waiting to make sure the bear was gone, he got up and started walking down the mountain.

“I got about halfway [down] before I could hear August yelling at me and I kind of yelled back, and then we linked up, and they got me off the mountain,” Cummings recounts.

The young men still had to make their way to a hospital. With the help of farmers in the area, the teammates made it to the trailhead.

“When I was riding in that side-by-side, I was cold, and that’s when it started to hit me that I’d been attacked, and I need some serious help,” Cummings said.

Once at the trailhead, the party met up with local Search and Rescue crews. Cummings was immediately flown by rescue helicopter to a Billings hospital, and Lowry was later transported by ambulance to the same hospital. Both sustained serious injuries but have since been released from the hospital.

“I thank, you know, every one of them, and I’m sure Kendell does, too. We really, it was a miracle that everything was a miracle, the whole story,” Lowry said.

“I’m just glad they’re both out now, and we can be together,” Jackson followed.

The young men anticipate getting back on the wrestling mat eventually, but for now, Cummings is home in Evanston, Wyoming, to continue recovery.

Hailey Monaco at KTVQ first reported this story.

After heartbreaking and revealing details about the circumstances of her death were announced to the public, Gabby Petito's parents are finally bringing home the remains of their 22-year-old daughter.More than a month after her body was discovered in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest, Petito's family traveled to Wyoming to receive her remains and prepare to lay to rest the young woman whose death has drawn intense interest while sparking conversations about the large number of missing persons cases each year -- and why others don't get as much attention.The funeral director at Valley Mortuary, Tyson Clemons, told CNN her remains were picked up Saturday.Last week, Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County Coroner, told CNN that he released Petito's remains to the mortuary on Tuesday, the same day he announced his long-awaited determination on the manner and cause of her death.Blue had made an initial ruling that Petito, who did not return from a summer road trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie, died by homicide. On Tuesday, he elaborated to say her death was caused by manual strangulation and that he believes she was strangled by a human being.Blue was not able to pinpoint the day or time Petito died, but he did add that her body was left in the wilderness for three to four weeks.Photos posted by the family on Twitter show them in Wyoming, honoring Petito amid the beautiful scenery she took in during the final days of her life."I just, I hope that she didn't suffer and that she wasn't in any pain. That she was in a place that she wanted to be, looking at the beautiful mountains," her mother, Nichole Schmidt, said.

MARIEMONT, Ohio — Wyoming senior tailback CJ Hester had a significant motivation for switching jersey numbers Friday night.

Instead of wearing his familiar No. 33, the all-state running back chose to wear No. 23 in recognition of his cousin who Hester said was paralyzed while playing football earlier this season.

Hester said he spoke with his cousin earlier this week for several hours and wanted to give him a tribute on the field. His cousin asked if Hester could wear his jersey number for him.

Hester happily obliged and scored three rushing touchdowns in the Cowboys' 40-9 win at Mariemont Friday night. Hester has scored 21 rushing touchdowns and 25 touchdowns overall this season.

"It just means a lot," Hester said. "Family is everything to me. Family is important to me."

Wyoming coach Aaron Hancock said Hester is a humble student-athlete who understands a life perspective beyond football, too. That showed on Friday night especially as Hester continued to gain yardage after contact.

"Being able to use his platform to honor his cousin shows a lot about his character," Hancock said.

"However, every single day that you meet CJ says a lot about his character, honestly. Every single day he presents himself very humbly. He is a very humble person. He has a great family and he loves his family. It's fun to watch. The kid has grown up before our eyes and has become a great young man and is really having a lot of fun playing football. I think every week he is going to get better and better."

Wyoming (8-0, 5-0 Cincinnati Hills League) won its 55th consecutive regular-season game – the best in the state regardless of division – including its 40th consecutive CHL game. The Cowboys are 8-0 for the sixth consecutive season and are in a good position to potentially capture their sixth consecutive CHL title.

Sophomore quarterback Quaid Hauer connected with junior wide receiver Matty Mitchell for two touchdown pass connections Friday night. Sophomore DJ Gray scored on a 50-yard touchdown reception, too. Wyoming led Mariemont 20-3 at halftime after trailing after the first quarter.

"Our kids are getting better and better every week," Hancock said. "These guys have a mentality that they are going to improve Monday through Thursday so that can perform better on Friday."

Wyoming plays at Finneytown Oct. 15. Mariemont (6-2, 3-2 CHL) plays host to Reading Oct. 15.