GOP Senate challengers emerge to take on Harriet Hageman in primary

It’s not the 10-candidate rumble Wyoming is fielding for the U.S. House Republican primary, but the U.S. Senate race to succeed Sen. Cynthia Lummis is multiplying. Sam Mead, a Republican rancher who told Cowboy State Daily he has too many guns to pick a favorite but has been partial lately to the Glock 43, declared his candidacy statewide last week. And Jimmy Skovgard, who marvels that Wyoming’s bare-knuckles politics now calls his old-style conservative stance “moderate,” also vies for the GOP nomination.

The two are taking on U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who’s leaving her House seat to run for the Senate after Lummis announced she won’t seek a second term. Hageman has the endorsements of President Donald Trump, Wyoming senior U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and Lummis. The winner of the Aug. 18 Republican primary will face the Democratic nominee. So far the only known Democratic hopeful is former state Rep. Jim Byrd.

Mead, 36, was raised on a ranch in Teton County and descends from a family of Wyoming political heavyweights. His uncle is former Gov. Matt Mead, his great-grandfather is the late U.S. Sen. and Gov. Cliff Hansen. He served as the mayor of Kirby, Wyoming, ran a distillery there, and later worked as a software engineer. He’s now focused full-time on his campaign.

A highly unpopular congressional push last year to sell federal public lands gave Mead the urge to run. “That to me just said our representation doesn’t seem to really reflect what I believe to be Wyoming values,” he said. When Hageman announced her Senate bid and Trump and Wyoming’s senators endorsed her, Mead felt her election was treated as a given, short-circuiting the people on the ground. He agreed with an attorney who called it a “coronation.”

Mead said he’d like to see local communities have significant sway in public lands decisions. On social issues, he’d leave those to local governments as well. He said federal spending is out of control, and while he agrees with cutting federal agencies, he’d like to see it done with more forethought. “Honestly it seemed willy-nilly,” he said, noting that veterans seemed to bear some of the consequences.

Mead hunts and shoots. When he’s not shooting his Glock 43 he’s partial to his AR-15, and when bow hunting he brings a Smith & Wesson .460 for bear defense. He’s married with two children. He worked as an engineer at Blue Origin and helped build his family’s Wyoming Whiskey distillery.

Skovgard, 60, of Mills, said his political realization came in the 2024 election, when he concluded that many in the Republican party would rather slap labels on their political adversaries than help people. “I follow the golden rule,” he said, recalling the story of the good Samaritan. “We’ve got a lot of division in the Republican Party. Not just division. Some of it is a little toxic.”

Skovgard pointed to recurring statements by Sen. John Barrasso that Democrats are hindering progress. He said political leaders would rather fight and divide the country than accomplish things, and that division has crept into his own family. “We need to slow down the rhetoric. Slow down the wind. Let the truth come back into focus.”

Skovgard grew up in the Big Horn Basin, attended college in Laramie, joined the Army National Guard in 1989 and served until 2001. He ran an oil service business until 2016. His great-grandfather settled in Basin in 1909 and later served as president of the state Senate.

Skovgard’s political philosophy insists “the regular citizen should have way more input.” He wants an aggregate data model by which Wyomingites could vote in real time on issues their congressional delegates are handling. He pointed to a proof of concept at grassrootsmvt.org. The survey results wouldn’t bind delegates, he said, but they might produce surprises about where Wyomingites actually stand.

“If former Rep. Liz Cheney would have had something like this, she could have asked the state of Wyoming, should she be sitting on the January 6 committee,” he said. “She would have been able to make a better, informed decision.”

Skovgard said his approach would be to remain within the Constitution’s confines and consult the people of Wyoming — all of them, from the political left to the Freedom Caucus right. “I’ve been called a Liz Cheney Republican. I’ve gotten all the labels from RINO to Trump Derangement Syndrome,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Lay those labels on me.’ Because I will represent every citizen of Wyoming.”