The Guardian (USA)

Mike Enzi, retired Republican senator from Wyoming, dies after bicycle fall

- Associated Press in Gillette, Wyoming

Mike Enzi, a retired Wyoming Republican senator known as a consensusb­uilder in an increasing­ly polarized Washington, has died. He was 77.

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

Enzi fell near his home about 8.30pm on Friday, family friend John Daly said, around the time Gillette police received a report of a man lying in 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 newspaper.

A former shoe salesman elected to the Senate in 1996, Enzi became known for emphasizin­g 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. He was succeeded in 2021 by Republican Cynthia Lummis, a former congresswo­man and state treasurer.

Enzi’s political career began at 30 when he was elected mayor of Gillette, a city at the heart of Wyoming’s thenboomin­g coal mining industry. He was elected to the Wyoming House in 1986 and state Senate in 1991.

The retirement of Republican Alan Simpson opened the way for Enzi’s election to the US Senate. Enzi beat John Barrasso in a nine-way Republican primary and then Democratic former Wyoming secretary of state Kathy Karpan in the general election. Barrasso would be appointed to the Senate in 2007 after the death of Senator Craig Thomas.

Enzi wielded quiet influence as the Senate slipped into partisan gridlock over the second half of his career there. His more recent accomplish­ments included advancing legislatio­n to enable sales taxes to be collected on internet sales crossing state lines. He played a major role in reforming the No Child Left Behind law that set performanc­e standards for elementary, middle and high school students.

He fought for Wyoming as the top coal-mining state to receive payments through the federal Abandoned Mine Land program, which taxes coal operations to help reclaim abandoned mining properties.

Enzi sought to encourage business innovation by hosting an annual inventors conference. He also backed bills involving the US Mint but his proposal to do away with the penny was unsuccessf­ul.

He was born on 1 February 1944, in Bremerton, Washington. His family moved to Thermopoli­s soon after. Enzi graduated from Sheridan High School in 1962 and from George Washington University with a degree in accounting in 1966. He received a master’s in retail marketing from the University of Denver in 1968.

He married Diana Buckley in 1969 and the couple moved to Gillette where they started a shoe store, NZ Shoes. They later opened two more stores, in Sheridan and Miles City, Montana. From 1985 to 1997, Enzi worked for Dunbar Well Service in Gillette, where he was an accounting manager, computer programmer and safety trainer. He served two, four-year terms as mayor of Gillette.

His family expressed appreciati­on for prayers and support but asked for privacy, D’Onofrio said. The family is planning “a celebratio­n of a life welllived” he said. Enzi is survived by his wife; two daughters, Amy and Emily; a son, Brad; and several grandchild­ren.

 ?? Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shuttersto­ck ?? Mike Enzi, seen at a Senate committee hearing last year.
Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shuttersto­ck Mike Enzi, seen at a Senate committee hearing last year.

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