Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas Loses Battle with Leukemia

Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia just before the 2006 election, but won with 70 percent of the vote.

Republican three-term Senator Craig Thomas from Wyoming died Monday after a battle with leukemia. He was 74.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Republican three-term Senator Craig Thomas from Wyoming died Monday after a battle with leukemia.

He was 74.

Earlier Monday, his office reported that he was in serious condition.

Thomas had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia at National Naval Medical Center.

The Senator's successor will be named by Wyoming Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal.

Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia just before the 2006 election, but won with 70 percent of the vote.

Two days after the election, Thomas announced that he had been diagnosed with leukemia.

Thomas was an officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1955 to 1959; he attained the rank of captain.

In 1989, Dick Cheney, who occupied Wyoming's only seat in the United States House of Representatives, resigned from it in order to become United States Secretary of Defense.

Thomas became the Republican candidate to replace him in the April 1989 special election.

Thomas was born and raised in Cody, Wyoming where he attended public schools.

He graduated from the University of Wyoming in Laramie with a degree in Agriculture; a field in which he is considered an expert in by his colleagues today.