Wyoming’s junior U.S. Senator and the first woman it sent to the upper chamber of Congress, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, is not seeking reelection in 2026, she said Friday.
“Deciding not to run for reelection does represent a change of heart for me,” said Lummis, 71, who touted the “incredible honor to represent Wyoming” and holding the state as “my one-and-only priority.”
But, she added, “in the difficult, exhausting session weeks this fall I’ve come to accept that I do not have six more years in me.”
Lummis was sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, 2021, and has served in public office since 1979.
Lummis said she’s a devout legislator, “but I feel like a sprinter in a marathon. The energy required doesn’t match up.”
“What a blessing to serve with Senators John Barrasso and (the late U.S. Sen.) Mike Enzi when I was in the U.S. House, and with John and Rep. Harriet Hageman while I’ve been in the Senate,” she wrote. “We all put Wyoming first, which has cemented our cohesive working relationship.”
Lummis, said she’s honored to have earned the support of President Donald Trump and to have had the chance to work alongside him, “to fight for the people of Wyoming.”
She’s still looking forward to “throwing all my energy into bringing important legislation to his desk in 2026, and into retaining commonsense Republican control of the U.S. Senate,” she said.
“Thank you, Wyoming!”
'Remarkable Run'
Mary Kay Hill, who worked alongside Lummis in Gov. Jim Geringer’s office and went on to serve as chief of staff for Gov. Matt Mead, emphasized the wide variety of offices Lummis has held over her nearly lifelong legacy of Wyoming political service.
“It’s a remarkable run,” said Hill. “I just wish her the best.”
Hill said a public servant’s decision not to run for reelection is “a very personal decision.”
“(She’s) someone who really is a daughter of Wyoming and has worked tirelessly to make us a better place,” said Hill.
In Geringer’s office, Lummis handled difficult state lands issues, Hill noted.
In Congress, said Hill, the junior senator has developed a “singular” level of expertise in cryptocurrency legislation and has kept a broad footprint of constituent services for Wyomingites contending with federal issues and working with federal agencies.
Lummis chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Digital Assets, and is a key leader on negotiating a crypto market structure bill in the Senate.
Her office told Forbes in October that she's been working "full steam ahead" on market structure legislation.
She also backed Wyoming's efforts as the state became the first to launch its own digital currency and cosponsored the federal GENIUS Act, which is now law, to implement a stablecoin regulatory framework.
Wild Field Now
To Liz Brimmer, former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas and longtime Wyoming politico, Lummis’ departure means the loss of “an incredibly effective and capable leader who is 24/7, 365, All Wyoming.”
Brimmer called Lummis “a unicorn of talent and intelligence” who is “hawkishly loyal to her constituents.”
“She would be leaving next year at the high point of an amazing career,” continued Brimmer. “No doubt she will keep achieving throughout this next year of service and beyond. She has an incredibly able staff in DC and in Wyoming and it is important to also highlight their great work as a team for this great state.”
Brimmer speculated on heavy hitters who may contend for the Senate seat.
The open seat “is a seat set for Harriet Hageman — if she wants it.”
Hageman’s aspirations have been ambiguous this year, as a poll that surfaced in February, touting her likelihood of being elected Wyoming governor, contrasts her overwhelming ballot box favor in the two most recent U.S. House elections.
Hageman “has earned choices by her approval numbers and no one can dispute that,” said Brimmer.
Lummis’ departure also amplifies the significance of the 2026 election season, she said.
“It creates a wide field of change that will generate significant fundraising, media spending, and potentially surprising shuffles,” noted Brimmer. “On federal, state and legislative levels, there will be multiple, competitive, simultaneous horse races at an intensity that has not been seen for many years here.”
Offices For Grabs And Being Tentative
Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s sense of direction may hinge on Hageman’s decision, as he’s expressed prior to Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols that he is not interested in running against Hageman.
He's not the only one being tentative.
Wyoming House of Representatives Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, told Cowboy State Daily in July that whether he runs for governor “depends on what Harriet does.”
“And to me it is still early to be announcing,” Neiman said at the time. “I personally would love to see her run for governor because I believe she would clear the field and give Wyoming eight solid years of conservative leadership.”
If too many “conservatives” run and Hageman doesn’t, it could split the vote against a less conservative frontrunner, Neiman said, listing that as a concern going into the election cycle.
Neiman rose to power on a staunch pro-life platform, guiding multiple anti-abortion bills into existence and pushing to intervene in a legal challenge against them.
State Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, has declared a run for governor. So too has 2022 candidate Brent Bien, and now-independent candidate Joseph Kibler.
Wyoming is firmly red, voting about 70% in favor of President Donald Trump, bearing a supermajority of Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature and across most local partisan offices.
Hill said she hopes the candidates for Lummis' seat are "statesmen."
"Whether that’s a male or a female - you sure hope there are some good statesmen out there who can step up and represent Wyoming," said Hill.
'Happy Warrior'
Rob Wallace, who served prior as the second-highest official at the U.S. Department of Interior, who has known Lummis for more than four decades and served with her in the Geringer administration, said it’s “indescribable” to say how much Wyoming will miss her leadership.
“She's always put Wyoming first in every job she's taken, whether it was the state legislature in Laramie County, serving a state treasurer, serving in Congress, the US Senate,” he said.
“The best describe her as a happy warrior — principled, but goes out of her way not to make enemies, even from people that are on different sides of an issue with her,” he said. “She’s just an amazing public servant.
Wallace was also chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop and staff director for the U.S. Senate Energy Committee.
'Voice of Reason'
Geringer who served with Lummis in the state legislature, said Wyoming will miss her voice of reason.
“Cynthia was not given to rhetoric like so many politicians of today,” Geringer said. “She just stands up for what she believes and explains it to people in a way that they understand.”
“We need that voice of reason in today’s political environment,” he said.
Lummis also served as Geringer’s chief counsel during his first term as governor and it was there, that he further saw her leadership ability.
“She’s a true leader,” he said. “She never demanded that anyone fall in line or agree with them. She would just explain to people why she felt a certain way.”
'Extraordinary Era'
Hageman said there are few figures in the history of Wyoming public service with an impact as large and substantial as Lummis’.
“Cynthia Lummis has embodied the clear-eyed common sense that Wyoming is known for. Her retirement marks the close of an extraordinary era in our state’s political history—one defined by integrity, independence, and an unwavering devotion to the people she served,” said Hageman in a Friday statement. “Cynthia built one of the most distinguished and consequential careers in the history of Wyoming public life. She will leave having made Wyoming and America stronger, and I will always consider her a lifelong friend.”
Hageman said that while in Washington D.C., Lummis remained an advocate for farmers, energy producers, and landowners; and that she defended the rights of ranchers, miners, and small business owners "who built Wyoming over the centuries and kept the state’s economy strong."
Lummis Champions, Trump Pardons Mechanic
Lummis made headlines this year by introducing legislation seeking to legalize the practice of “deleting” or removing environmental emissions equipment on diesel engines.
She also championed the cause of Troy Lake, a 65-year-old Wyoming mechanic who was convicted of a felony and sentenced to one year of prison for removing emissions systems on diesel engines.
Lake spent several months in a federal prison in Colorado before being released to home confinement on an ankle monitor this fall.
When Trump pardoned Lake on Nov. 7, Lummis was the person who called Lake to tell him the news.
She co-sponsored the now-enacted Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the nonconsensual posting of intimate images of other people; and the Laken Riley Act, which authorizes states to sue the federal government for alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.
History
A University of Wyoming law graduate, Lummis was born on a cattle ranch in Laramie County on Sept. 10, 1954.
She’s spent nearly all her adult life in the political arena, serving in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983 and 1985 to 1993, then in the state Senate from 1993 to 1995.
She worked as general counsel to Gov. Jim Geringer in the mid-to-late 1990s, then became state Treasurer – a post she held for eight years from 1999-2007.
In 2008 Lummis was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in the lower chamber from 2009 to 2016.
She was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, her website says, adding that the group consists of “the most unflinching conservative Members of the House of Representatives.”
A five-year gap separates her U.S. House tenure from her U.S. Senate term.
During that time, her website says, she opened her family’s cattle ranches and the Sweetgrass development in Laramie County with her brother and sister.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
