Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R)

Wyoming, the nation’s least populous state, has elected one representative-at-large since it was admitted to the Union in 1890. The new congresswoman from Wyoming is Cynthia Lummis, a Republican who succeeded GOP Rep. Barbara Cubin in 2009.

Lummis (LUM iss) grew up on her family’s ranch in Cheyenne. She earned two bachelor’s degrees and a law degree at the University of Wyoming. When she won a seat in the state House of Representatives at age 24, Lummis became the youngest woman ever elected to the Wyoming Legislature. She chaired the Revenue Committee and helped revise the state’s taxation of the mining industry, which is the state’s chief source of revenue. She served in the state Senate from 1994 to 1995, and went on to become state treasurer in 1998. In that office, she diversified the state’s investment portfolio—at the time it contained large investments in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—to include various equities totaling $8.5 billion. According to Lummis, the move helped Wyoming weather the recent economic downturn spurred by a credit crisis in the home mortgage market.

In 2007, the Wyoming Republican party placed Lummis on a list of three potential candidates to succeed Sen. Craig Thomas, a Republican who died of leukemia in June of that year. Under Wyoming state law, if a senator leaves office prematurely, his political party must nominate three possible replacements. The governor then chooses a successor from those candidates. Lummis’ name was submitted along with state Sen. John Barrasso and ex-Justice Department attorney Tom Sansonetti. Lummis’ poor relationship with Freudenthal made her a dark horse candidate. It was reported that during a private meeting in 2002, Freudenthal threatened her by saying, “Don’t ever cross me or your head will be in your lap before you even know I’ve drawn my knife.” Lummis verified this report, and Freudenthal did not deny it. Freudenthal selected Barrasso for the Senate seat, but Lummis says the experience encouraged her to seek federal office. She announced her candidacy for the state’s at-large seat in the U.S. House, which came open in 2008 when Cubin retired from Congress.

In the Republican primary, Lummis faced rancher Mark Gordon, who invested $1 million of his own money and outspent Lummis by 4-to-1. The candidates’ similar political views made the race a reflection on leadership. Gordon ran as a political outsider, but Lummis criticized him for supporting Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 and Democrat Gary Trauner in his 2006 race against Cubin. Lummis won with 46% of the vote to Gordon’s 37%.

In the general election, Lummis faced Trauner, a businessman who came out of nowhere in 2006 and used a well-financed grassroots campaign to nearly unseat Cubin. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put Trauner on their top priority “Red to Blue” list, but his chances of winning in a heavily Republican state diminished with the prospect of having to face a candidate other than Cubin, whose poor roll call attendance and penchant for outlandish comments had weakened her politically. Lummis ran as a staunch conservative, pledging to oppose new taxes and calling for making the Bush administration tax cuts permanent. Trauner claimed that Lummis would threaten the stability of the country’s Social Security system by investing money from the program in unstable capital markets, which she denied. Several October polls showed the candidates in a statistical dead heat, but the numbers proved to be misleading. Lummis won 53%-43% with Libertarian candidate David Herbert getting 4% of the vote.

In the House, Lummis joined the Republican Study Committee, a group of the most conservative members of the House. As a new member of the Budget Committee, Lummis called for reform of spending earmarks and promised that she would not request them for her state. Appropriations earmarks have come under fire in recent years as wasteful spending. Lummis criticized President Barack Obama for signing an omnibus appropriations bill containing thousands of earmarks. “I ran for Congress to end this type of self-serving legislation,” Lummis said. “The president promised to change the process. He promised he would not sign bills containing earmarks. Yet, it is apparent that promise was merely lip service during an election year.”

She also co-sponsored a successful bill with other Wyoming members of Congress. It allows gun owners to carry concealed weapons in national parks, and was signed into law by Obama as part of credit card-holders consumer protection bill.