HEAR, Interview With James Byrd, (D) For U.S. Senate Wyoming

James Byrd has been talked into running for elected office again. This time, the U.S. Senate seat for the state of Wyoming.

Mr. Byrd was good enough to join Wyoming's radio talk host Glenn Woods to talk about his views and why he is stepping back into politics. You can listen to the full interview in the audio file below.

James W. Byrd (born March 14, 1954) is an American politician and former Democratic member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, representing the 44th district from 2009 to 2019. His mother, Harriet Elizabeth Byrd, previously held the same seat from 1980 to 1988, and was the first black American to serve in the Wyoming State Legislature.

Byrd began his career in the oil industry as a geophysicist technician for Compagnie Générale de Géophysique and British Petroleum Amoco in 1979.

In 1984 and 1986, he moved to the cybersecurity industry as a business and systems analyst for Computer Network Services in 1990. He was hired in 2006 as a senior network and systems analyst for Byrd Companies.

In 2009, Byrd was elected as state representative for Wyoming State Legislature’s 44th House District.

Byrd retired from his seat in the House of Representatives to run for Wyoming Secretary of State shortly after Republican incumbent Ed Murray resigned, but lost the November 2018 election to Murray's successor, Edward Buchanan.

In February 2026, he announced his candidacy for the 2026 United States Senate election in Wyoming after strong encouragement from the Democrat party of Wyoming.

Click below to hear the full interview on Wyoming's only statewide morning radio talk show.