Cynthia Lummis
Cynthia Marie Lummis Wiederspahn is an American politician who was the U.S. Representative for, serving from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as a State Representative, State Senator, and State Treasurer.
She did not seek re-election in 2016, but is running for the U.S. Senate in the 2020 election.
Early life
Lummis is one of four children born in Cheyenne, Wyoming to Doran Lummis and the former Enid Bennett, a native of Denver, Colorado, who was reared in Cheyenne and was highly active in Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Republican Party. Lummis' maternal grandparents were Clarence "Buck" Bennett, the head mechanic at the Greyhound Bus Lines in Cheyenne, and Eda Erickson Bennett. In a statement upon her mother's death, Lummis said, "I carry with me so many lessons my mother taught me; chief among them is the quiet grit she displayed in the face of pain and adversity."After high school, Lummis enrolled in the University of Wyoming in Laramie, obtaining two Bachelor of Science degrees in animal science in 1976 and in biology in 1978. While she was a legislator, she received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wyoming in 1985 and also clerked for the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Wyoming state legislature
Lummis was a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983, and from 1985 to 1993, and then the Wyoming Senate from 1993 to 1995.U.S. House of Representatives
Cynthia Lummis was one of three female U.S. Representatives in Congress who prefers the appelation "congressman" to "congressperson" or "congresswoman"; the others were Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black of Tennessee who have since left the House.Elections
;2008Lummis, who carried the support of pro-life and economic conservative voters in Wyoming, won the November 4, 2008, general election to succeed Barbara Cubin of Casper. In the August primary election, Lummis defeated businessman and rancher Mark Gordon of Buffalo in Johnson County.
In the general election, Lummis faced Democratic Teton County School Board Trustee Gary Trauner of Wilson, who had run against Cubin in 2006 and nearly won. Trauner criticized Lummis because she has supported privatization of Social Security and has also suggested raising the retirement age for receiving such benefits; Trauner has called instead for consideration of imposing the FICA tax on income over $100,000, which is currently exempt.
;2010
Lummis won re-election, with 71% against Democratic challenger David Wendt.
;2012
Lummis again won re-election, with 69% of the vote against Democratic challenger Chris Henrichsen.
;2014
In October 2013, corrections officer Jason Adam Senteney announced that he would challenge Lummis in the 2014 Republican primary. Senteney opposed the 2013 government shutdown: "You should never shut down essential programs for people.... Whether it's a negotiation tactic or not, you shouldn't punish the American people for your own failure to work together in Washington."
Tenure
Lummis was a signer of Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge.Timothy P. Carney of the Washington Examiner has called Lummis one of Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake's "posse of anti-appropriators" on the Appropriations Committee. According to Carney, Lummis "is the league leader in bucking the committee leadership".
Legislation supported
- Ranch A Consolidation and Management Improvement Act – a bill that would transfer 10 acres of federal lands to the state of Wyoming for use at the historic Ranch A. Lummis introduced the bill.
- Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act – a bill that would require the federal government to defer to individual states about regulations governing hydraulic fracturing. If a state has laws or regulations regarding hydraulic fracturing, those regulations would be the rules that applied in that state, not any regulations created by the federal government. Lummis supported this bill.
- Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act – a bill that would direct the United States Department of Agriculture to establish at least one Forest Reserve Revenue Area within each unit of the National Forest System designated for sustainable forest management for the production of national forest materials and forest reserve revenues. Lummis supported this bill.
- Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act – a bill that would require the Administrative Conference of the United States to prepare a report each year on the amount of fees and other expenses awarded by federal courts to nonfederal entities when they prevail in a case against the United States. Lummis introduced this bill on August 1, 2013. Lummis said that "requiring agencies to keep track of what they pay attorneys will help Congress determine if EAJA is working well or not." According to Lummis, the EAJA was meant to the help the "little guy" but "was later co-opted by large environmental groups so their litigation shops could get reimbursed for filing expansive litigation on environmental issues."
Committee assignments
- * Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
- * Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation
- * Subcommittee on Water and Power
- Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- * Subcommittee on National Security
- * Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs
- Committee on Science, Space and Technology
- * Subcommittee on Energy
- * Subcommittee on Research
- Committee on Appropriations
Caucus memberships
- Congressional Western Caucus
- International Conservation Caucus
- Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus
- Women's Caucus
- Congressional Arts Caucus
- Freedom Caucus
- Veterinary Medicine Caucus
- Congressional Constitution Caucus
Electoral history
- Cynthia Lummis, Republican – 105,322
- Charyl "Butch" Loveridge, Democrat – 52,655
- James Blomquist, Libertarian – 10,024
- Cynthia Lummis – 79,557
- Cynthia Lummis – 152,583
- Cynthia Lummis – 33,149
- Mark Gordon – 26,827
- Bill Winney – 8,537
- Michael S. Holland – 3,171
- Cynthia Lummis, Republican – 131,244
- Gary Trauner, Democrat – 106,758
- W. David Herbert, Libertarian – 11,030
- Write-in candidates – 363
- Cynthia Lummis – 84,063
- Evan Liam Slafter – 17,148
- Write-in candidates – 289
- Cynthia Lummis, Republican – 131,661
- David Wendt, Democrat – 45,768
- John V. Love, Libertarian – 9,253
- Write-in candidates – 287
- Cynthia M. Lummis, Republican – 166,452
- Chris Henrichsen, Democrat – 57,573
- Richard P. Brubaker, Libertarian – 8,442
- Don Wills, Country Party – 3,775
- Daniel Clyde Cummings, Constitution – 4,963
- Write-in Candidates – 416
Post-House career and Senate campaign
Lummis was actively being considered to be United States Secretary of the Interior in the Trump administration after the resignation of Ryan Zinke, but David Bernhardt was eventually appointed to the position.
On May 4, 2019, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi announced his retirement, leading to speculation that she might run for his seat in the 2020 election. On July 11, 2019, she announced her campaign.