Wyoming

Cracks in Wyoming’s red wall: State faces power shifts, Republican split

Published

2 weeks ago

November 5, 2024

Cracks in Wyoming’s red wall: State faces power shifts, Republican split

On Election Day, there won’t be a lot of surprises in Wyoming. The Cowboy State is expected to overwhelmingly re-elect former President Donald Trump. Incumbent Republicans Senator John Barrasso and Representative Harriet Hageman are likely to return to Congress with ease. And on the state level, Republicans are expected to keep their dominance in the state’s legislature.

But a closer look shows cracks in the state’s red wall and mounting questions about what it means to be a Wyomingite and a conservative.

“It’s been disheartening to see the division in our own party,” Republican State Senator Wendy Schuler said. “We still have people that are really thinking that this far right rhetoric is what we need to hear.”

The “Code of the West,” derived from the book “Cowboy Ethics,” is written into the Wyoming constitution. Members of the Wyoming legislature have no staff or assistants and often work full-time in the communities they represent as ranchers, lawyers, or truck drivers. The cowboy code and citizen legislature feed into Wyoming’s political reputation as a handshake-forward, small-town style, independently thinking state. National trends, however, are coming home to roost.

Recent legislative sessions have been rife with hot-button culture war issues, with the 2024 sessions including proposed abortion restrictions, a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and a ban on gun-free zones. Republican fissures on the issues mirror national trends, with more moderate, establishment Republicans bearing allegations of being “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) from their further-right, often Freedom Caucus-aligned opponents.

The clashes have played out in Wyoming’s highest echelons. Republican Governor Mark Gordon vetoed many of the legislature’s culture war bills and ended up facing censure from his own party. Gordon frequently butts heads with Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who secured his office with a Trump endorsement and campaigned on disproven claims of a stolen 2020 election.

The fissures were on full display in the state’s primary, which shifted power rightward towards the growing Wyoming Freedom Caucus. The campaign season featured accusations of misinformation, including a defamation lawsuit, out-of-state money, and continued the state’s trend of increasingly expensive election cycles.

The Freedom Caucus will enter 2025 in the driver’s seat instead of its members’ long-held positions as political outsiders and disrupters. Republican State Representative and Freedom Caucus member Chip Neiman says the reshuffling of power indicates voter discontent with Wyoming politics.

“If people didn’t want something, or were satisfied with the howngs were, this would not have gone this way,” Nieman said. “I would suggest that people are looking for more conservative type leadership.”

Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews

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Wyoming

Wyoming governor pledges to appeal after judge blocks pro-life laws

Published

6 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Wyoming governor pledges to appeal after judge blocks pro-life laws

By Kate Quiñones

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2024 / 06:00 am

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Wyoming judge blocks state pro-life laws

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court after a county judge blocked two pro-life laws in Wyoming. The judge blocked the Life Is a Human Right Act, which protected unborn children except in cases when the mother’s life was at risk or in cases of rape or incest, as well as a law prohibiting chemical abortions via abortion pills, a law signed by Gordon in March 2023.

Gordon said on Tuesday that the ruling was “frustrating” and that he instructed his attorney general to prepare to appeal the decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens ruled on Monday that the two laws violated the state constitution by restricting medical decisions. Owen has blocked Wyoming abortion laws three times since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Now that the ruling has been struck down, abortion is legal up until fetal viability in Wyoming.

The plaintiffs included Wyoming abortion clinic Wellspring Health Access, two obstetricians, two other women, and the Wyoming abortion advocacy group Chelsea’s Fund. Following the ruling, Chelsea’s Fund stated on Tuesday that it “will do everything in our power to uphold this ruling in the Wyoming Supreme Court.”

Montana judge blocks licensing law for abortion clinic

A Montana District Court temporarily paused the state’s recent health department licensing regulations for abortion clinics amid pending litigation. House Bill 937 required licensure and regulation of abortion clinics and included rules for sanitation standards, emergency equipment, and hotlines for women who are coerced into an abortion or are victims of sex trafficking.

Two abortion providers, All Families Healthcare in Kalispell and Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, and an abortionist sued over the regulations, saying they would have to close if they were implemented. Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Chris Abbot ruled in their favor, saying that H.B. 937 was a shift in “the status quo” that abortion providers “are not generally considered health care facilities subject to a licensure requirement.” Montana voters approved Initiative 128 on Election Day, enshrining a right to abortion in the constitution and allowing abortion after fetal viability.

Virginia bishops condemn fast-tracked right to abortion proposal

Two Virginia bishops recently opposed a proposed amendment granting a right to abortion, which was fast-tracked by the state House Privileges and Elections Committee. Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond in a Nov. 13 statement called the proposed right to abortion “a fundamental tragedy.” Virginia law currently allows abortion up to 26 weeks and six days and allows abortion after that in certain cases. Burbidge and Knestout encouraged Virginia to “work instead for policies that affirm the life and dignity of every mother and every child.”

The bishops also opposed a fast-tracked proposal to remove the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman from the state constitution. The bishops noted that they “affirm the dignity of every person” and “affirm too that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman.” Following the election, the bishops encouraged “deep engagement in decisions” that are at “the heart of who we are.”

Kate Quiñones

Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.

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Wyoming

Wind advisory includes Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties

Published

14 hours ago

November 20, 2024

Press Room

Wind advisory includes Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties

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Wyoming

What Wyoming coach said about Boise State, Ashton Jeanty

Published

22 hours ago

November 20, 2024

Press Room

What Wyoming coach said about Boise State, Ashton Jeanty

Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel had high praise for No. 12 Boise State during his weekly press conference.

“This is probably the best Mountain West team that I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been in this conference,” Sawvel said of the Broncos (9-1, 6-0), who travel Wyoming (2-8, 2-4) this Saturday.

“It’s a big challenge when you’re playing a team that’s on track to play in the playoff. They’re very well-rounded. They’ve got experience on defense, and they’re productive and opportunistic on that side of the ball. And then obviously Ashton Jeanty, who is kind of ridiculous. … We’re obviously going to have to play our best game we’ve played all year defensively to hang in with them.”

The Cowboys are coming off a 24-10 road loss to Colorado State.

Here are the highlights from Sawvel’s press conference.

On Boise State’s offense

“There’s a large model of what they do that is what we want to become. When you look at the blueprint in a sense, nobody is going to have Ashton Jeanty, I get that … but there’s a lot of things foundationally to what they do that is like ‘OK, this is what we want to look like.’”

On Boise State’s balance

“(Ashton Jeanty), great player there. But to be honest with you — he’s amazing and he deserves the credit that he gets, Heisman consideration and those types of things — but the quarterback, Maddux Madsen, really makes them go. Because … you can load the box on everybody run-game wise, but his accuracy and what (offensive coordinator) Dirk Koetter does with him offensively creates a balance for them that makes them that much harder to defend.”

On maintaining eye discipline, spying Madsen

“You’ve got to do your job and you’ve got to have your eyes in the right spot. That’s something that’s foundational to anything defensively. But if you start looking around too much in the run, (Madsen) is a very good quarterback. They’ve got good skill that opens things up. Just his movement, his ability to move. He’s a hard guy to sack. He’s got 19 touchdowns and three interceptions, so there’s an accuracy there that’s important, too.”

On ‘getting up’ to play Ashton Jeanty

“Well, let’s be careful a little bit about that. There’s a guy from San Diego State that chirped a lot about Ashton Jeanty, and that didn’t work out very good. So look, anytime there are good players on the field, I think players want to play good when there are other good players on the field.”

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