JUST IN: Beloved MAGA Rep. Launches Senate Run

Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, a staunch House ally of President Donald Trump, jumped into the Senate race Tuesday, launching a bid to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

Hageman’s announcement came just four days after Lummis said she would not seek a second six-year term in next year’s midterm elections, opening a rare Senate seat in the solidly red Western state.

A victory would put another Trump loyalist in the upper chamber.

“President Trump’s America First movement made it popular to say you want to Make America Great Again, and he continues to deliver on that promise,” Hageman said in a statement and launch video announcing her run. “It would be a great honor to keep advancing the America First agenda in the Senate, as it has been in the House.”

A water and property rights attorney, Hageman rose to national prominence in 2022 when she ousted then-Rep. Liz Cheney in the Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large House seat, with Trump’s backing.

Cheney became a top Trump target after she was one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the president following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She later served in a leadership role on the Democrat-led committee that investigated the riot by Trump supporters seeking to block congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Hageman went on to win nearly 70% of the vote in the general election and was again backed by Trump in her landslide re-election victory in 2022. A Trump endorsement in her Senate bid would hardly come as a surprise.

Katie Pavlich in conversation with Congresswomen Harriet Hageman and Kat Cammack on the 1st day of CPAC Washington, DC conference at Gaylord National Harbor Resort Convention on March 2, 2023

Lummis, in announcing her decision to step aside, pointed to this fall’s bruising and divisive government shutdown.

“Deciding not to run for re-election does represent a change of heart for me, but in the difficult, exhausting session weeks this fall I’ve come to accept that I do not have six more years in me,” the senator wrote in her statement.

Hageman praised Lummis as she kicked off her campaign.

“Cynthia Lummis leaves a legacy of over four decades of principled, conservative leadership, and Wyoming and America are better for it,” Hageman said. “I thank her for her distinguished and admirable service, and pledge to also bring honor to the office she held, should the people of Wyoming make the decision to elect me to the United States Senate.”

A leader in the Western Caucus, which represents Republican lawmakers from Western states in both chambers of Congress, Hageman is a fourth-generation Wyomingite. She said she plans to continue fighting for conservative principles and the protection of what she called Wyomingites’ natural rights and liberties.

“I will always defend Wyoming’s ability to access, manage and use our natural resources to fuel our economy. We must ensure that Wyoming remains a leader in energy and food production to help us maintain our way of life,” she said in her statement.

Hageman is the first major Republican to formally enter the race. Two-term GOP Gov. Mark Gordon is widely believed to be weighing a run.

Republicans dominate statewide politics in Wyoming. Trump carried the state by 46 points in his White House victory last year, and GOP Sen. Tom Barasso cruised to re-election by 51 points.

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