Is Liz Cheney related to Dick Cheney?

The issue of nepotism in Hollywood has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years, opening eyes everywhere to just how many of our favorite stars had a leg up on the competition.

Its not just Hollywood that likes to keep things in the family, either. While we’re busy discovering that icons like Nick Cage — yep! He’s related to the Francis Ford Coppola — and Whitney Houston fall into the nepo baby camp (as if Houston needed it), we’re also stumbling across evidence of exactly how often family plays into America’s most prominent political hirings.

Our politicians are just as guilty of nepotism as our celebs, if not more so. A number of our most prominent politicians — looking at you, the Kennedys — have seen numerous generations reach massive heights, and that’s not a trend going out of style anytime soon. As we ruminate on the Bush family, the Adams family, and of course the Rockefeller family, more modern examples should be seizing our attention instead. The Rockefeller’s aren’t boasting much prominence anymore, but what of the Cheneys?

Are Liz and Dick Cheney related?

Dick Cheney had his moment in the sun, but in the years since he ended his tenure as vice president — not to mention that disastrous hunting trip — he’s largely disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist. People are still vaguely aware of him, and jokes about politicians shooting each other (guns don’t shoot people in the face, people shoot people in the face) persist, but he now exists as a vague memory of a simpler time in politics.

In reality, they were far from simple times, but when compared to the screeching baboons and amoral schemers that now make up a bulk of U.S. politicians, it certainly seems so. Cheney was among the most influential vice presidents in history, and he was also a warmonger of Darth Vader proportions. His legacy is equal parts impressive and appalling, and as such he’ll be remembered long after he’s gone from this world.

Then there’s Liz Cheney, a fellow politician and yes, a member of Dick Cheney’s family. She joins the tarnished family legacy as the oldest daughter of Dick and Lynne Cheney, and her politics largely align with those of her father. She’s been touted as the heiress to America’s neoconservative throne, and her pointed, stark politics are far easier to pin down than many of the people that occupy her party these days.

She’s not in it for the chance to rub elbows with Trump — in fact, despite her loyalty to the right, Cheney is among Diaper Don’s biggest Republican critics. She’s spoken out against the former president at several points, and she’s considered one of just a few remaining vestiges of a slowly-disappearing true Republican party.

She’s enjoyed a decorated career in politics, much like her father. She never quite reached Dick Cheney heights, but the eldest Cheney child did serve in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023, in the process chairing both the House Republican Conference and the House January 6th Committee, and her outspoken nature where it comes to Trump has been widely praised. It’s not enough to make left-leaning voters agree with her politics, but it does show that somewhere, buried beneath the bullshit, a spine still exists on the right side of the political aisle.