Republican who kicked Liz Cheney out of Congress seeks higher office in reddest state

Wyoming Republicans chose Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wy., on Tuesday as their nominee for U.S. Senate in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

Lummis, elected to the Senate in 2020 after serving four terms in the U.S. House , announced she would not seek a second term, opening the seat in one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states.

Hageman emerged from a five-way Republican primary featuring former Kirby Mayor Sam Mead, Jill Edwards, John Holtz and former environmental services business owner Jimmy Skovgard.

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Hageman, in the country’s most red state based on registered voter percentage, entered the race as the best-known and best-funded candidate in the field. She is seeking a promotion to the upper chamber.

President Donald Trump endorsed Hageman after also backing her successful 2022 campaign to unseat former Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming’s Republican House primary.

Now serving her second term as Wyoming’s lone U.S. House member, Hageman rose to national prominence with her victory over Cheney.

Cheney became Trump’s biggest target in 2022 after she served as one of the only two Republicans on the House Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots alongside fellow GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-IL, who did not seek reelection that year.

The ousted Wyoming congresswoman, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, become one of Trump’s most prominent Republican critics.

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Hageman will now face the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 3 general election — though with Wyoming’s deep red roots, it’s highly unlikely the single U.S. House seat will flip blue this year.

The at-large seat is ranked by the bipartisan Cook Political Report as solidly Republican with a R+23, the best odds of any Senate race this election cycle.

Republicans enter the general election with a substantial advantage in Wyoming. All of the state’s statewide elected offices are currently held by Republicans.

The Senate contest is part of an unusually large turnover in Wyoming’s political leadership.

For the first time in 32 years, the state has open races for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House in the same election cycle.