Colin Mackenzie Simpson1993-1994 Official Congressional Directory, ed. Duane Nystrom, Leslie Mason, U.S. Government Printing Office, pg 335 (born March 5, 1959) is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served in the

Wyoming House of Representatives The Wyoming House of Representatives is the lower house of the Wyoming Legislature, Wyoming State Legislature. There are 62 Representatives in the House, representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts across the Wyoming, st ...

from District 24 from 1999 to 2011. He was the House Speaker during his last two years in office. He finished fourth in the Republican primary for the 2010 gubernatorial election. After leaving the legislature in early 2011, Simpson resumed his law practice in Cody.

Family and personal life

Simpson was born in

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

and is a fifth generation Wyomingite. His father was former

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Alan Simpson; his grandfather was former U.S. Senator and Wyoming

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Milward Simpson. An uncle,

Pete Simpson Peter Kooi Simpson Sr. (born July 31, 1930) is an American historian and politician who is a member of the Simpson political family of Wyoming. From 1981 to 1984, he was a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from Sheridan, where at ...

, served in the Wyoming House and is a retired administrator at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

in Laramie. Simpson is married to the former Deborah Oakley, who was reared in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The couple has two sons, Mackenzie and Nicholas. Simpson currently practices law in Cody and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the

Buffalo Bill Historical Center The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. The five museums are the Bu ...

there.

2010 gubernatorial candidacy

Simpson stated in an interview in the spring of 2008 that he was interested in running for governor, should Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal be term-limited. Simpson filed to form an exploratory committee to run for governor. On March 18, 2010, he announced his candidacy for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and was immediately seen as the frontrunner for the nomination. His opponents included former state representative and former Director of Agriculture Ron Micheli, former U.S. Attorney Matt Mead, and State Auditor Rita Meyer. Mead narrowly won the nomination, with Meyer and Micheli in second and third places, respectively. Simpson then conceded and endorsed Mead's candidacy.

References

External links

Representative Colin Mak
''official Wyoming State Legislature site''
Colin Simpson for Governor
''official campaign site'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Colin M. 1959 births Living people American politicians of Dutch descent Speakers of the Wyoming House of Representatives Politicians from Cheyenne, Wyoming American people of English descent People from Cody, Wyoming Wyoming lawyers American people of Scottish descent Republican Party members of the Wyoming House of Representatives American Episcopalians Wyoming Republicans 20th-century members of the Wyoming Legislature 21st-century members of the Wyoming Legislature