U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis, arguably the crypto industry’s closest friend in Congress, will not seek another term, she said in a statement Friday.
The first-term lawmaker will resign after her six-year term ends in January 2027, leaving an open Republican seat in extremely red Wyoming but also removing a major ally of the digital assets industry. Lummis was the first chair of the first subcommittee dedicated to crypto issues within the U.S. Banking Committee, where she made pro-crypto legislation a top priority.
Even now, she is among the lead negotiators of the crypto market structure bill, which will bring members back to the negotiating table after the holidays. She will still be there in what could be the last-ditch effort to achieve the industry’s main legislative goal in 2026.
“Deciding not to run for reelection represents a change of heart for me, but during the difficult and exhausting session weeks this fall, I came to accept that I do not have six years left,” Lummis said in the statement, released as the House abandoned Washington for recess. She likened herself to a sprinter who ran a marathon. “The energy required is not up to par,” she says.
Time and again, Lummis has introduced bills intended to facilitate regulatory acceptance and government adoption of crypto. These include broad market structure efforts, crypto tax proposals, and legislation to establish the government’s bitcoin stockpile.
Although the 2026 congressional midterm elections will be a high-stakes political battleground in which party majorities in both chambers will be at stake, the last time a Democrat held a Senate seat in Wyoming was in the 1970s. In Lummis’ 2020 campaign, she received nearly 73% of the vote.
“I am honored to have earned the support of President Trump and to have the opportunity to work alongside him to fight for the people of Wyoming,” Lummis said in her statement. She said she would “focus all her energy on bringing important legislation to her desk in 2026 and maintaining common-sense Republican control of the U.S. Senate.”
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