Former U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wy. dies after bike accident

GILLETTE, WYO. » Retired Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican known as a consensus-builder in an increasingly polarized Washington, has died after he broke his neck in a bicycle accident. He was 77.

Enzi died peacefully Monday surrounded by family and friends, former spokesman Max D’Onofrio said. He had been hospitalized with a broken neck and ribs for three days following a bicycle accident near Gillette. He was stabilized before being flown to a hospital in Colorado but remained unconscious, D’Onofrio said.

Enzi fell near his home about 8:30 p.m. Friday, family friend John Daly said. Around the same time, Gillette police received a report of a man lying unresponsive on a road near a bike.

Police have seen no indication that anybody else was nearby or involved in the accident, Lt. Brent Wasson told the Gillette News Record.

A former shoe salesman first elected to the Senate in 1996, Enzi emphasized compromise over grandstanding and confrontation to get bills passed.

His “80-20 rule” called on colleagues to focus on the 80% of an issue where legislators tended to agree and discard the 20% where they didn’t.

“Nothing gets done when we’re just telling each other how wrong we are,” Enzi said in his farewell address to the Senate in 2020. “Just ask yourself: Has anyone ever really changed your opinion by getting in your face and yelling at you or saying to you how wrong you are? Usually that doesn’t change hearts or minds.”

Wyoming voters reelected Enzi by wide margins three times before he announced in 2019 that he would not seek a fifth term. Enzi was succeeded in the Senate in 2021 by Republican Cynthia Lummis, a former congresswoman and state treasurer.