While all eyes were on the presidential race during election week 2020–and all eyes are still on it–the GOP has welcomed 4 new senators to Congress!

Two Senate seats–both in Georgia–are going to run-offs. Both GOP candidates–Loeffler and Perdue–are technically incumbents, but we do have 4 new GOP faces gracing the Senate floor this session. 

They’ll serve a six-year term before facing election again, so who knows what they can do in that period.

Cynthia Lummis: Wyoming

In 2019, Republican Mike Enzi announced he would not seek re-election, and so his seat was up for grabs. The ultimate winner was Republican Cynthia Lummis, who defeated challenger Merav Ben-David handily. Lummis won 73% of the vote.

Cynthia Lummis, a long-time attorney and politician, will be the first female to represent Wyoming in the Senate. Lummis is Wyoming born and raised-born in Cheyenne, and attending Wyoming schools for both her undergraduate and law school careers. While Lummis spent her career primarily as an attorney, she was also a state politician. She served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983 and 1985 to 1993, and in the Wyoming Senate from 1993 to 1995. 

Lummis represented Wyoming in the U.S House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017, so she definitely isn’t new around the Capitol. In Congress, she was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. 

Expect Lummis to be an outspoken voice on issues of conservation, agriculture, public lands, and the 2nd Amendment. 

Lummis, who is 66, is a widow. Her husband of over 30 years, Alvin, passed away in 2014. She’s the grandmother of one adorable boy named Gus!

You can learn more about Lummis via her campaign website here. 

Roger Marshall: Kansas

Like Enzi, Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas retired from the Senate, and now he will be replaced by former Kansas Representative Roger Marshall. Marshall won 53.5% of the vote. 

Roger Marshall is a born-and-raised Kansan, attending school there as well as being born in the state. Marshall also served seven years in the U.S. Army Reserve. He’s also a physician, so technically he’s Dr. Roger Marshall. 

Marshall served two terms in Congress, representing the state and serving on committees such as agriculture and small business. 

Like his time in the House, Marshall’s time in the Senate will likely see him working on agriculture, exploring the role of the Midwest and western states in the national discourse, and perhaps working on healthcare

Marshall, who is 60, has been married to his wife Laina for decades, and they have 4 children and 2 grandchildren. 

You can learn more about Marshall on his House website or his campaign website here. 

Bill Hagerty: Tennessee

Another retirement! Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander retired from the Senate this year, and Republican Bill Hagerty won the race to replace him. Hagerty, a politician who also worked as a diplomat, won 62.2% of the vote. 

Hagerty joins the Senate off of a career as the U.S Ambassador to Japan, a position he was appointed to during the Trump administration. Prior to his diplomacy work, he ran a private equity investment firm. Hagerty was born in Tennessee, attended undergrad there, and received his law degree from Vanderbilt. 

You can expect to see Hagerty on committees related to foreign relations and finance, and expect him to be a vocal supporter of Republican policies as well as anything related to relations with Asia and Japan in particular. 

Hagerty, 61, and his wife Chrissy are parents to four children. 

You can learn more about him from his campaign website here. 

Tommy Tuberville: Alabama

In a seat flip, Tommy Tuberville defeated incumbent Sen. Doug Jones to win the Alabama Senate seat once held by Jeff Sessions. Tuberville won 60.4% of the vote. 

Prior to entering politics, Tuberville was best known as being the head football coach for the University of Mississippi, Auburn University, Texas Tech, and the University of Cincinnati–not all at the same time, of course. He was born in Arkansas. 

After football, he was involved with investment and funding capital projects and a foundation dedicated to helping veterans. 

It’s unclear what Tuberville’s priorities in the Senate will be. He’s a pretty typical conservative on the issues–abortion, the 2nd amendment, healthcare–so it’s likely he will be of support to bigger name conservative senators in the years to come until he finds his own voice among them. It will definitely be interesting to see what committees he lands on!

Tuberville, 66, and his wife Suzanne have two children. You can learn more about him from his campaign website here.

Aryssa D
FFL Cabinet Member

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