Trump-Backed Harriet Hageman Wins Wyoming GOP Senate Primary, Moves Closer to Higher Office

Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who became a national conservative figure after ousting Liz Cheney from Congress, has won Wyoming’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and is now heavily favored to become the state’s next senator.

Hageman emerged victorious Tuesday from a five-way Republican primary for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis. Lummis, who was elected to the Senate in 2020 after previously serving four terms in the House, announced that she would not seek a second term.

The congresswoman entered the primary as both the best-known and best-funded Republican in the race. She defeated a field that included former Kirby Mayor Sam Mead, Jill Edwards, John Holtz and businessman Jimmy Skovgard.

President Trump endorsed Hageman’s Senate campaign after playing a major role in her rise to Congress four years earlier. Trump backed Hageman in 2022 when she challenged Cheney for Wyoming’s lone House seat in one of the most closely watched Republican primaries in the country.

Hageman ultimately crushed Cheney in that contest, ending the political career of one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican opponents. Cheney had become a fierce critic of Trump and was one of only two Republicans who served on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

That victory transformed Hageman into a nationally recognized Republican and reliable Trump ally. She is currently serving her second term as Wyoming’s at-large House member and is now seeking a promotion to the upper chamber.

Her path to the Senate appears unusually favorable. Wyoming remains one of the most Republican states in America, and Republicans currently control every statewide elected office. The Senate race is rated solidly Republican, with the state carrying an R+23 partisan rating.

Hageman will face the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 3 general election, but Democrats face extraordinarily long odds of flipping the seat. Wyoming has repeatedly delivered overwhelming margins for Republican presidential and statewide candidates.

Her Senate run also comes during an unusual period of political turnover in Wyoming. For the first time in 32 years, the state has open races for governor, U.S. Senate and its lone U.S. House seat during the same election cycle.

For Trump, Hageman’s victory represents another win for a Republican he helped elevate into national politics. His endorsement helped propel her campaign against Cheney in 2022, and he returned to her corner as she sought to succeed Lummis.

Hageman has now cleared what was likely the biggest obstacle standing between her and the Senate. After knocking one of Trump’s most prominent Republican adversaries out of Congress four years ago, the Wyoming conservative is positioned to move from the House to the Senate and give Trump another powerful ally on Capitol Hill.