Liz Cheney could have kept her place in the Republican House leadership and her congressional seat in Wyoming if she chose to.
Many of her colleagues have made private compromises and publicly supported the Trumpist direction of the Republican party, hiding their reservations.
But the attack on the US Capitol was a defining moment for this staunchly conservative Republican. She has blamed Donald Trump directly, saying he "summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack".
And so we now see the extraordinary sight of Dick Cheney’s (vice-president under George W Bush) daughter stumping for Democrats in tight races, in an attempt to keep Congress under Democratic control so Donald Trump can’t claim a Republican victory as his - and use the midterms as a launch pad for his next White House run.
But Cheney isn’t stumping for just any Democrats. She's campaigned for the former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin in Michigan - who served with Cheney on the house armed services committee, and shares her view that American democracy is under attack from election deniers.
In Arizona, where the Republican candidates for Governor and Secretary of State say the 2020 election was stolen, Cheney is featured in political ads urging voters not to support these Republicans.
And in Ohio, where the Republican candidate for the Senate seat JD Vance has said the election was stolen from Donald Trump, Cheney has campaigned for Democrat Tim Ryan.
What the future holds for Liz Cheney is unclear - she hasn’t ruled out a run for president, though her path to the Republican nomination looks strewn with near-insurmountable hurdles.
