decrypt.co
Republican Senate candidate Cynthia Lummis has defeated her Democratic challenger, booking a six-year term as a US senator from the state of Wyoming. Lummis is an ardent supporter of Bitcoin, having first purchased it back in 2013 when it was worth just over $300.
The senator-elect learned about the technology from her son-in-law, the Chief Product Officer of crypto financial services firm Unchained Capital, while serving eight years as Wyoming's sole representative in the House from 2009 to 2017.
Lummis ran on a campaign closely linked to President Trump's agenda. Her campaign website promotes an "America First" agenda, a move toward uranium mining and carbon capture technologies, cutting red tape for agriculture inspections, protecting gun rights, and eliminating abortions.
She's also prominently highlighted the national debt, calling herself a "fierce budget hawk" who will "work tirelessly to cut spending." Which is where her admiration for Bitcoin comes in. She's worried that a spendthrift fiscal policy combined with a print-happy monetary policy could weaken the dollar's strength as a reserve currency. Lummis told attendees at the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede in September:
“I want to address America’s debt when I go to the U.S. Senate. But I also want to protect the value that America’s workers generate through their labor. We cannot continue to debase our currency and expect that the American workers’ wages and savings will be unaffected.”
Bitcoin could be a more secure store of value, in Lummis' eyes: I bought my first bitcoin in 2013 because I believe in the economic power of scarcity and the potential for bitcoin to address some of the manipulations in our financial system."
It's only fitting that Wyoming should send a Bitcoin enthusiast to the Senate, which has notably few members keen on crypto relative to the lower house. In 2019, Wyoming passed a series of pro-cryptocurrency and blockchain bills designed to attract innovation to the state.
Just this fall, the state has granted two bank charters to cryptocurrency companies to offer financial services that bridge fiat and digital currencies—the first such licenses in the country.
Caitlin Long, the driving force behind Wyoming's blockchain embrace as well as Avanti, which earned a bank charter in October, congratulated Lummis on her win.
AWESOME NEWS for #crypto folks from the crazy US election tonight—@CynthiaLummis won #Wyoming’s US Senate seat!! The US Senate now has an unabashed #bitcoin supporter & HODLer (since 2013) among its ranks!! CONGRATS Cynthia! @willcole @CynthiaMLummis 🤠🚀🔥 pic.twitter.com/8SCF9pkRSg
— Caitlin Long 🔑 (@CaitlinLong_) November 4, 2020
Lummis is set to be sworn in on January 3, 2021.