After one term in office, Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis became the eleventh U.S. senator to announce retirement next year.
On Tuesday morning, as widely expected, Representative-at-large Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., declared for the open Senate seat. Within hours of her announcement, stalwart conservative Hageman, 63, had secured endorsements from President Donald Trump and the Club for Growth political action committee.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: “SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Hageman became a nationwide heroine on the right in 2022 after unseating then-GOP Rep. Liz Cheney by a landslide. Cheney had fallen out of favor with Trump during the House hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol, and Hageman, with the former president’s endorsement, captured 66% of the primary vote.
Jack Mueller, former state legislator and past national chairman of the Young Republicans, stated: “If Harriett runs, she will win [the Senate nomination].”
However, Hageman’s departure from her at-large seat points to a hard-fought primary battle between competing GOP factions. The favorite among MAGA supporters is Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Grey, who sources in the state say could possibly receive Trump’s blessing before the primary.
Also conservative but more aligned with party regulars than MAGA is attorney Matt Micheli, former state GOP chairman and Wyoming chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. “His father Ron Micheli was also a successful politician serving in the state House plus as the state agriculture secretary,” Tom Sansonetti, another former state party chairman, said.
“So the name ‘Micheli’ is well known in the state. It doesn’t hurt that the family has a ranching background,” he added.
Few doubt that the winners of the Republican primary will go on to win in November. Wyoming last elected a Democrat senator in 1970, and its last Democratic Party House member won in 1976.
