The congresswoman from Wyoming is Cynthia Lummis, a Republican elected in 2008. As the nation’s least populous state, Wyoming has elected one representative-at-large since it was admitted to the Union in 1890. Read More
The congresswoman from Wyoming is Cynthia Lummis, a Republican elected in 2008. As the nation’s least populous state, Wyoming has elected one representative-at-large since it was admitted to the Union in 1890.
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, which at the time was heavily invested in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to include various equities totaling $8.5 billion. Lummis later said that the move helped Wyoming weather the 2007-09 economic downturn spurred by the 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 among the candidates. Lummis’ name was submitted along with state Sen. John Barrasso and ex-Justice Department lawyer Tom Sansonetti. Lummis’ poor relationship with then-Gov. Dave 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 Republican Barbara Cubin retired.
In the Republican primary, Lummis faced rancher Mark Gordon, who invested $1 million of his own money and outspent Lummis by 4-to-1. They shared similar political views, and the contest hinged on who was the more conservative candidate. 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-era 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 well as the Tea Party Caucus. In 2011, she also was named communications chairman for the Congressional Western Caucus, giving her an added forum for her views on limited government interference on public lands. Her party loyalty landed her a spot on the Appropriations Committee after the House GOP takeover in 2010. She has called for reform of spending earmarks and promised she would not request them for her state. She also introduced a bill to slash the federal workforce by freezing the hiring of non-national security employees and requiring that only one replacement be hired for every two departing workers. Though she strongly opposed the Democrats’ health care overhaul, she backed its provisions benefitting rural hospitals and allowing adults up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance plans.
Lummis sponsored a measure in 2010 and 2011 that prevented the State Department from interfering with imports of U.S.-made collectable firearms from overseas. Earlier, she co-sponsored a successful bill with other Wyoming members of Congress to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in national parks. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama as part of a credit card-holders consumer protection bill.
In 2010, Lummis faced competition in her first re-election bid from Democrat David Wendt, president of the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs. The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle of Cheyenne endorsed her candidacy, but also scolded Lummis for her “partisan stridency” and tea party affiliation. “We suggest Ms. Lummis find her way back to the Wyoming mainstream,” the newspaper said. She soundly defeated Wendt, 70.4% to 24.4%.
