WYOMING — James Byrd, a fifth-generation Wyomingite, is running as a Democrat to challenge three Republican candidates in Wyoming’s U.S. senate race. The four candidates are vying for the state’s lone seat that will be vacated by Senator Cynthia Lummis.
Byrd sat down with Buckrail to discuss his campaign, his political priorities and his love for the 44th state in the union. Byrd’s mother Liz Byrd was elected in 1980 as the first black woman to serve in the Wyoming state legislature. She served eight years in the State House of Representatives and another four years in the State Senate. His father Jim Byrd became Wyoming’s first black police chief in 1966. James Byrd did not think he would go into politics, but was eventually convinced by some friends to run for the State House of Representatives in 2008. He was elected and served from 2009 to 2018.
“My mother was a political juggernaut,” Byrd told Buckrail. “My father was a policeman, and, in law enforcement, he was a juggernaut, also. They stood so tall that the shadow that they cast — you’re walking miles behind them and still walking in the shadow. … I embrace that. Those are my parents. That’s a cool thing to have two parents that are actually revered like that.”
According to Byrd, his family homesteaded in Laramie while Wyoming was still a U.S. territory, sometime around 1862. He attended Laramie Community College before moving to Colorado to work in the oil industry. He later worked in technology and corporate consulting, and also lived in California and Minnesota. He has always found his way back to Wyoming. Byrd fondly remembers learning about Wyoming history in fourth grade: square dancing, making sagebrush candles and reading cattle brands.
“And I learned the song Don’t Fence Me In,” Byrd said. “I guess that’s the Wyoming stuff running through my veins. So when I talk to you about working for Wyoming, I get it. I grew up here. … Dirt rolls right off the bottom of my boots.”
Byrd was first motivated to run for the U.S. Senate seat when he heard about a federal idea to sell off public lands across the Mountain West. The federal government has a large role to play in Wyoming, Byrd said, since it owns nearly 50% of the land in the state. He believes federal officials should act as good neighbors. “What we have done in the past, we have learned to live with that relationship,” Byrd said. “We’ve learned to maximize that relationship.”
His top campaign priorities include preserving access to Wyoming’s public lands, strengthening rural health care options, and protecting the unique energy heritage in the state. Coal production in the state hit record highs in 2008, and in 2024, the state of Wyoming ranked third in the U.S. in energy production. Byrd intends to support Wyoming’s energy workers while advancing sustainable innovations that could bring high-paying jobs. He is also a proponent of education, touting community colleges as nimble enough to make necessary changes and offer quality education across rural Wyoming.
“You want to give young people something to look forward to,” Byrd said. “And that’s why they leave the state of Wyoming. They look at Wyoming, they go, ‘Wow, there’s nothing here for me.’ And they really do mean that. Because we haven’t taken time to provide the next generation’s jobs that they want or need, at the salaries that they’re looking for.”
Byrd uses humor to defuse situations, but he is acutely aware of the seriousness facing the United States in this moment. Using President Trump’s words, he said the current “excursion in Iran” was miscalculated by officials in Washington, D.C. And rising costs of fertilizer, diesel, seed and labor are hurting Wyoming’s agriculture industry. While he supports negotiating the removal of any nuclear material from Iran, he believes the money spent on the conflict could be better used for school lunches, solutions for homelessness, and mental health support for U.S. veterans. He acknowledged that strained finances are likely the largest issue facing Wyomingites in their everyday lives.
“Kitchen table issues — cost: cost of living, cost of working, cost of getting out of bed every morning, health care,” he said. “It’s all related to the cost of things. And the federal government is directly responsible for those high costs being out of control.”
He supports finding ways to work on immigration issues, but he believes the current approach is “horrifyingly wrong,” and goes against the moral and ethical principles that this country was founded upon.
“Are you not offended?” Byrd asked rhetorically. “What do they have to do to get you off the couch and go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is wrong, and this is my government’? We are supposed to be setting the standard for righteousness, morals, and ethics.”
Having grown up in Wyoming, Byrd considers himself as naturally leaning a little bit right of center. He said his family on the East Coast sees him as extremely right wing, and people in Wyoming call him a liberal. According to the Wyoming Election Division, more than 30% of eligible voters did not cast a ballot in 2024’s general election. Byrd is working to connect with that cohort of 183,000 residents as he traverses Wyoming on the campaign trail.
“I’ve had the fortunate circumstances to do a lot, live a lot of things,” Byrd reflected. “And I will come back here just about every time, as long as we don’t screw up Wyoming.”
