As he campaigns across the state, U.S. Senate candidate James Byrd is adding around 1,000 miles a week to his odometer, maxing out his credit card and piling up plenty of hotel rewards.

When Byrd stopped in Powell earlier this month, the Cheyenne Democrat and former state lawmaker was en route to Jackson for a July 4 parade.

“It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of windshield time, but it’s Wyoming,” he said. “If you’re serious about this, then this is what you have to do.”

Current U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., is seen as the overwhelming favorite in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., but Byrd says that’s one reason he decided to run.

“There’s an individual in the Republican Party who feels that they're the anointed heir apparent, and that just rubs me the wrong way,” he said. “Not in this country. We are still a democracy; we just don’t anoint.”

Byrd said the final straw was when Hageman backed a proposal to sell off certain public lands and supported a repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prevents new roads on millions of acres of national forest lands. 

“I can’t think of two things that would hurt Wyoming more than selling off public lands and repealing the Roadless Rule. I just can’t,” Byrd said.

Byrd has made preserving public lands one of his top issues, citing in part their economic importance to hikers, hunters, agriculture and tourism. He doesn’t think more roads in the backcountry are needed to fight wildfires, nor does he think the general public would benefit from it.

‘Amateurs’ in the
administration

Education is another top issue for Byrd. 

While many Republicans — including Hageman — have called for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, Byrd says every state is already married to the department through grants and rule making.

In the wake of cuts to the federal agency, there’s a lack of federal guidance, Byrd said, and states are “floundering about.”

“All of a sudden you just literally blow up an entire federal agency, and tell them, ‘We’re closed for business,’ and I’ve got this raft of intertwined regulations and actions that need to be addressed,” he said.

There have been some calls around the state for a greater emphasis on career and technical education, but Byrd believes students still need a well-rounded approach that includes all of the sciences and the arts.

“... how we stay competitive on the world stage is turning out not just smart people, but the smartest people,” he added.

Byrd also has concerns about the health of the economy and the rising cost of housing, food and gasoline.

“Most of it is due to amateurs being placed in critical government roles in the current administration, and the Legislature, the Congress, not doing anything to rein in those amateurs or give them guidance,” he said.

In Byrd’s view, federal lawmakers are just “acquiescing to everything the president wants to do,” while the U.S. Supreme Court is “literally bought and paid for” and just rolls over. He says Congress should be doing much more to push back against the executive branch.

“We’ve got a president pretty much running unchecked and on his way to autocracy, if we’re not there already,” Byrd said, “which is just a very frightening thing.”

He said America’s status as the No. 1 country in the world “is, if we haven’t lost it, it’s truly in jeopardy.”

Running as a conservative

In response to President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement, the Democratic Party has recently moved further left in several parts of the country, with voters from New York to Colorado endorsing “Democratic Socialists.” As for Byrd, he describes himself as being worried about the rise of the “far left.”

“... the Republican Party was hijacked by the Freedom Caucus and these crazy right-wing extremists,” Byrd said, and “now we have them popping up in the Democratic Party.

“We used to be able to keep our crazies under control,” he added. “Now they’re getting elected and they’re gaining a foothold.”

In contrast, Byrd describes himself as a conservative and believes there are a lot of Democrats like him. When he speaks with voters around the state, he said some tell him that he sounds like a Republican.

“Just by virtue of growing up here in Wyoming, I’ve naturally leaned to center right and conservatism that way, pragmatism,” Byrd said.

He served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2009 to early 2019, representing a portion of Cheyenne, and made an unsuccessful run for secretary of state in 2018.

As for what impact Byrd would have in the Senate, he says he’ll do what he can.

“I know I cannot fix everything, but at least I might be able to throw the sand in the gears, slow it down a little bit,” he said, adding, “Hopefully we get some reasonable people elected that will help, and then we can get control back over the government.”

Byrd faces Billy Benavidez of Sheridan in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. On the Republican side, Hageman faces Jill Edwards of Laramie, John Allan Holt of Laramie, Jimmy Skovgard of Casper and Sam Mead of Jackson.