Mead, the son of Peter Bradford Mead and Mary Elisabeth Hansen Mead, was born and raised in Jackson, Wyoming. Mead graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in radio/television from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he was a member of the Bengal Lancer fraternity among other pursuits. He earned a J.D. degree from the University of Wyoming College of Law at Laramie. After law school, he served as a county and federal prosecutor and also practiced in a private law firm.
In accordance with Wyoming state law,[3] the Republican Party selected the three candidates from which Democratic governor Dave Freudenthal could make his selection. On the third ballot, the Republican State Central Committee, by fourteen votes, eliminated Mead from consideration. Freudenthal chose State SenatorJohn Barrasso; the others he considered were former State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne and former Republican State Chairman and lobbyistTom Sansonetti, who had been an aide to Thomas.[4]
With Freudenthal not running for a third term, because of term limits,[7] Mead was a heavy favorite in the general election; Wyoming is heavily Republican.
Mead's campaign emphasized his support for gun rights. He opposed gay marriage and abortion, but stated that there should be exceptions to allow an abortion when the woman's health or life is at stake and in cases of rape and incest. On November 2, 2010, Mead easily defeated Leslie Petersen, the former chairwoman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, receiving 72% of the vote to Petersen's 25%.[8]
In late January 2013, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill, a Republican, announced that she would be a candidate in Wyoming's 2014 governor's race. A Tea Party favorite, Hill would face Mead in the Republican primary on August 19, 2014.[9] Earlier in January, Mead had signed legislation sharply reducing the responsibilities of Hill's office, making the position largely ceremonial.[10]
Mead handily won re-nomination in the 2014 Republican primary, with 53,626 votes (55 percent), compared to Dr. Taylor Haynes' 31,490 (32 percent), and Hill's 12,443 (13 percent).[11] In the November 4 general election, Mead handily defeated Pete Gosar, the former Democratic Party state chairman and the brother of a Republican U.S. representative from Arizona, Paul Gosar. In the same election, Republican Jillian Balow, backed by Mead, won election to succeed Hill as the education superintendent.[12]
On February 17, 2015, Mead vetoed legislation intended to prevent the state from permanently confiscating an individual's property through civil forfeiture until after a felony conviction had been attained. The legislation, Senate File 14, gained strong popular support and passed through the Wyoming Legislature, with majorities in excess of 2/3 in both houses.[14] An attempt to override the veto failed.[15]
Mead's mother, Mary Mead, was the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 1990. Considered an expert horsewoman, she died in 1996, on her 61st birthday, in a horseback accident while working cattle in Grand Teton National Park. In 2003, Mead and his brother and sister put their family ranch in the park up for sale; the price was said to be $110 million.[17]
^As permitted by the Seventeenth Amendment, Wyoming allows the Governor to select the replacement for a vacant Senate seat to hold the seat for the remainder of the unexpired term. However, also as permitted by the Seventeenth Amendment, Wyoming law requires that the replacement must be of the same political party as the predecessor.
