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Former Representative Liz Cheney will deliver a Main Stage keynote, “Principled Leadership in a Polarized Society,” toady at Convening Leaders 25.
Liz Cheney, a lifelong Republican, was the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2021, when House members voted to remove her from her leadership position following her outspoken criticism of Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Later that year, Cheney — the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and an attorney who served in positions in the U.S. State Department during the administrations of former President George W. Bush — was appointed to serve as vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack. The committee recommended that the Department of Justice prosecute Trump on charges that included attempting to incite an insurrection against the United States on Jan. 6, 2021, the day protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C. — charges that were dropped following Trump’s election as president last November.
Her actions came at a high personal cost: Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress from 2017 to 2023, lost her bid for reelection, an outcome that she and others tied directly to her opposition to Trump. The path to victory had been clear, Cheney said in her concession speech, “but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take.”
Earlier this month, on Jan. 2, President Joe Biden awarded Cheney the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor, which is presented to U.S. citizens who “have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” according to a statement released by the White House. The statement praised Cheney, saying that throughout her career, she “raised her voice — and reached across the aisle — to defend our nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency. Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”
Today, at 1:30 p.m., Cheney will deliver a Main Stage keynote, “Principled Leadership in a Polarized Society,” where she will discuss her political career and how she arrived at her deeply held convictions, and the role that business events can play in the productive exchange of ideas in a democratic society.
Barbara Palmer is deputy editor of Convene.