WASHINGTON — Sen. Craig Thomas, a conservative Republican from Wyoming, has died after a fight with leukemia that was diagnosed last year just as he was elected for a third term. He was 74.

The senator's family said he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The family had said earlier in the day that his cancer had been resistant to a second round of chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia just before the 2006 election, but won with 70 percent of the vote, monitoring the election from his hospital bed.

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

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party.

Freudenthal called Thomas' death "a very big loss to the people of this state," saying "he carried the values that we treasure in Wyoming to Washington and had many successes."