Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis Won’t Seek Second Senate Term
Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming announced Friday that she will not seek reelection in 2026, marking the end of a career in public service that included defending American energy independence, constitutional rights and government accountability.
Lummis, who first entered the Senate in 2021 after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the grueling nature of recent Senate sessions led her to conclude that she only had “six years” left to serve. “I am an avid legislator, but I feel like a sprinter in a marathon,” she wrote, acknowledging a “change of heart” about running for re-election and adding, “The energy required is not up to par.”
In his announcement, Lummis expressed gratitude for serving alongside Senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi during his tenure in the House, as well as with Barrasso and Representative Harriet Hageman in the Senate. “We all put Wyoming first, which has cemented our cohesive working relationship,” she wrote.
She also said she looked forward to “continuing this partnership” with President Trump and “devoting all of my energy to bringing important legislation to his desk in 2026 and maintaining common-sense Republican control of the United States Senate.”
Lummis’ tenure in the Senate was marked by significant involvement in energy policy. She plays a leading role in the Trump administration’s campaign for American energy dominance, notably through the development of Wyoming’s rare earth minerals and coal resources. At the opening of the Brook Mine earlier this year – Wyoming’s first new coal mine in decades – Lummis called it a “triumph” that would help the United States reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals, noting: “There are magnets and rare earth minerals in virtually everything with a button.” »
She praised Trump’s energy team, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and praised the administration’s deregulatory campaign that has accelerated the permitting of mining projects and expanded nuclear development, including the construction of TerraPower’s natrium plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. “Wyoming exports twelve times more energy than it consumes,” she noted, emphasizing the state’s central role in implementing national priorities, including growing demands for artificial intelligence.
Lummis was also a prominent defender of constitutional freedoms amid revelations that Biden-era officials were monitoring Republican lawmakers. In October, she disclosed that the FBI had informed her that special counsel Jack Smith, working under Biden’s Justice Department, had obtained her and other senators’ phone records in 2023. “It is shocking that the FBI would infringe on our constitutional rights in this manner,” she said, calling it “wrongdoing at the highest levels of government.” She expressed concern that “the Democratic-led government” has diverted toward “tactics outside of the Bolshevik era,” citing broader concerns about surveillance, political targeting and election interference.
Following these revelations, Lummis joined others in pushing for investigations, with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for accountability. Lummis warned that the FBI’s proprietary encrypted systems could still conceal details of such activities, calling for a full reckoning. “We must uncover the extent of the deep state’s abuse of our free democracy in a way that takes us down a path so dark that it shocks the conscience.”
Beyond domestic surveillance, Lummis was franc in denouncing government spending, she considered them unnecessary. As a member of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) caucus, she called for taxpayer-funded initiatives, such as $8 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary and gendered language,” $4.5 million for disinformation efforts in Kazakhstan, and DEI programs abroad. She defended DOGE and President Trump’s efforts to reduce this spending, noting that cuts to federal DEI contracts alone saved $1 billion.
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