Former Republican Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi died after breaking his neck and some ribs in a bicycling accident that happened Friday near Gillette, Wyoming, the Associated Press reports. He was 77 years old.
The circumstances of Enzi’s accident are unknown: his family says he fell while riding alone on Friday around 8:30 p.m. local time. Police received a call at that time about a man lying unresponsive on the road next to a bicycle.
Enzi was first elected to the Senate in 1996, serving four terms before retiring at the end of the 2020 term. He served as mayor of Gillette before serving in the state legislature from 1986 to 1996. Prior to entering politics, he worked as a shoe salesman.
“He was a giant and will be really missed by all of us,” Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s sole representative in the House of Representative, said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”