Wyoming
Fear is driving Wyoming politicians, immigrants in divergent directions – WyoFile
At first glance, Jose and Sara are the kind of couple Wyoming politicians like to talk about most. Jose is a welder who works in the oil fields. Until recently, Sara worked at a coal mine.
The couple has helped power the nation, as elected officials often proclaim when touting the state’s energy industry and its workers. And in doing so helped power the state, whose budget leans heavily on tax revenue from the energy sector. They have lived for nearly two decades in Sweetwater County, building community, raising their children and sending them to local schools.
But there’s a wrinkle to this Wyoming story. Jose and Sara are in the country illegally. So elected officials aren’t exalting their lifestyle in speeches in the Wyoming State Capitol or patting them on the back. Instead, through draft legislation, court filings and public remarks, immigrants, even some who are here legally, say Wyoming politicians are putting targets on their backs.
Sara and Jose are not the couple’s real names. WyoFile granted them anonymity so they could speak freely without drawing the attention of federal authorities. Another person in this story also used a pseudonym so that she could talk about members of her family who do not have legal status in the country.
In state politics, as in Washington D.C., illegal immigration is increasingly cast as a near-existential threat, one that drives crime and impoverishes the nation. This legislative session lawmakers have pushed harsh new enforcement measures that they justify with depictions of a flood of dangerous illegal immigrants, often in an echo chamber without opposing voices. Living in the shadows, unable to vote, unfamiliar with the workings of the Legislature and unwilling to draw too much attention to themselves, Jose and Sara think their side of the story goes unheard.
“We came to do the hard work,” Jose said. He’s proud of the labor he and his immigrant colleagues have put into the state’s energy sector over the decades he’s been in Wyoming.
“There are jobs that a lot of people aren’t up for working, and so there’s the Latino,” he said. “When it rains, when it snows, when it gets hot, always there’s the Latino. Working.”
Wyoming residents do not pay a personal income tax, but Jose and Sara both pay state sales taxes and federal income taxes like anyone else drawing a paycheck.
Or at least they used to both draw paychecks.
Sara has recently stopped going to work. She grew too scared of discovery, she told WyoFile. The coal industry is packed with fierce supporters of President Donald Trump, and she worried someone might find out she wasn’t a legal resident of the United States and report her to federal authorities.
Now scared to leave the house, she’s bracing for the worst. She’s afraid she’ll be stopped, found out by law enforcement and deported. She’s afraid her children, even the ones born in the United States, will be harassed. The Trump administration has already challenged the long-held constitutional understanding of birthright citizenship.
Officials in Sara’s adopted state support that endeavor: Wyoming is one of 18 Republican-led states to file a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship.
Mostly today, as the rhetoric directed toward immigrants like her grows ever sharper, Sara is afraid of a future in Wyoming dominated by fear.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” Sara said. “There’s a lot of families like us, in the same situation.”
‘Military-aged male adults’
On Feb. 10, the House Judiciary Committee took testimony from four Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers who deployed to a flashpoint along the Texas border with Mexico. In that hearing, lawmakers and law enforcement together painted a picture of those who come into the country illegally that stood in stark contrast to the story shared by Jose and Sara.
Gov. Mark Gordon sent the troopers in August 2024, as tensions ran high between Texas and the federal government. In a press release announcing the deployment, Gordon said the troopers were going south because Wyoming was “committed to closing the open Biden-Harris border.”
The deployment in fact came amid a sustained drop in illegal border crossings, which had reached a record high in December 2023, according to Pew Research Center, which compiles data on the number of apprehensions of unauthorized migrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents. By August 2024, however, increased enforcement by the Mexican government and actions by President Joe Biden’s administration had brought those encounters to the lowest levels of Biden’s term, and to a level below the high mark of the first Donald Trump administration, according to experts.
The Mexican National Guard began to patrol its side of the border in the winter of 2024, Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, told WyoFile. Two months before Wyoming troopers’ August deployment, Biden implemented a rule that capped the number of people the country would grant asylum to daily. That spurred a sharp drop in attempts to enter the country outside established ports of entry, Putzel-Kavanaugh said, and drove migrant families, in particular, to wait in Mexico until they could receive a hearing with border patrol authorities.
But whatever the statistics, the troopers told lawmakers that on the ground the border remained a troubled place, where smugglers and migrants kept Texas law enforcement constantly busy. They described constant vehicle pursuits, large-scale warrant services and dangerous traffic stops looking for smuggled migrants.
“The problems that Texas is facing are massive, the amount of police work that is there is infinite,” Trooper Ethan Smith told the committee.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Art Washut, R-Casper, asked the troopers what types of border crossers law enforcement was encountering most.
“Primarily military-aged male adults,” Smith said.
Describing men crossing the border as military-aged or fighting-aged has grown more common among conservatives. Critics of the labeling say younger men are also the demographic most likely to take risks in search of opportunities to earn money — risks like leaving their homeland and illegally crossing into the United States.
Crossing the border is physically taxing, limiting the number of older adults who try it, Putzel-Kavanuagh said. Historically, men have been more common border crossers than women and have generally sought to establish themselves in the United States before bringing up other family members, she said.
Wyoming should consider procuring the type of bulletproof vests, drones and surveillance equipment the 12 troopers saw deployed by their counterparts in Texas, Rep. Lee Filer, R-Cheyenne, said during the meeting. He expressed fear that a threat was massing in Colorado, given its more liberal policies toward undocumented immigrants.
“Not even 100 miles south of here this is allowed,” Filer said. “They’re allowed to just come in.”
Wyoming, he said, may need to better equip its troopers “to make sure that one, they’re protected, and, two, they’re protecting us.”
Sgt. Brad White told lawmakers about his visit to a state park in the border city of Eagle Pass. The park became the flashpoint in a standoff between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the federal government in January 2024. Abbott ordered Texas law enforcement and the Texas National Guard to occupy the state park, which is next to an international bridge and block Border Patrol from using it to process people crossing the border.
White described Shelby Park as now militarized, with shipping containers used as walls and long coils of barbed or razor-sharp wire strung across the park and in the Rio Grande River. The Texas trooper he was working with told White about a wash of desperate humanity in the park, with areas “knee deep” in clothing and foreign passports shed by people crossing and seeking asylum. People receiving asylum are required to leave many of their belongings behind and carry only things they can fit into a small Department of Homeland Security-issued bag, according to previous news reporting.
White shared one story about a migrant who was not a military-aged adult. One day, he was tasked with interviewing a 13-year-old girl from Guatemala who had been caught crossing the border. Though the girl had begun her border crossing with a group, but told officers she had been abandoned. The girl was lacerated with cuts from the razor wire, White said.
The ‘right way’
Sweetwater County resident Elizabeth, not her real name, first entered the United States when she was 10 years old. She was not smuggled across the border and did not have to avoid razor wire but instead came in on a visa that expired when she was 15.
Today, she’s a mental health worker. When she was studying for her master’s degree at the University of Wyoming, even some of her close friends did not know she wasn’t legally in the country. Now in her mid-twenties, Elizabeth just became a legal resident last year. She achieved that status by marrying a U.S. citizen. In a few more years she can become a citizen herself.
Had she not gotten married, Elizabeth did not see a path to becoming a legal citizen, she told WyoFile.
“You always hear that argument, ‘If you’re going to come here, do it the right way,’” she said. “There isn’t a right way. The only reason I’m here and I have status is because I got married. I have a master’s degree, I speak English, I’ve been here for more than 10 years and it still wasn’t an option.”
Sara echoed that sentiment. She became eligible for a special visa issued to victims of a crime in 2016, after an assault. That program, called a U-visa, could have provided her protected status at least for a time. But she has spent years pursuing it, she said, and thousands of dollars on lawyers.
“What is the right way?” Sara said. “I’ve been in the immigration system for more than 13 years.”
While Elizabeth now has legal status, her 18-year-old sister, who lives in Wyoming as well, does not. Elizabeth is scared that her sister might be caught up in the Trump administration’s widening drive to deport people, though her sister does not have any criminal record. A recent Senate bill brought by Torrington Republican Cheri Steinmetz would have made it a felony to knowingly transport or shelter an undocumented person. That measure would have made Elizabeth a criminal for giving her sister a ride, she noted.
Senators killed Steinmetz’s bill, 20-10, on Feb. 10.
But Republicans, both at the state level and nationally, aren’t moving toward creating any clearer pathways to citizenship. With Gordon and Wyoming’s government in full support, they seek instead to strike at one of the most bedrock routes.
Until Trump issued an executive order to unilaterally end it, citizenship for babies born in the U.S. had been an unchallenged constitutional principle since a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1898.
In a brief calling for the court to uphold Trump’s order, Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill and her colleagues argued that the principle was bad for the country. And in doing so, the Republican attorneys general, like lawmakers in Cheyenne, sweepingly cast immigrants as a public safety threat.
“For the past four years, disastrous immigration policies transformed every State into a border state by flooding them with illegal aliens, including criminals convicted of crimes in their home country, violent international gang members, and suspected ISIS terrorists,” the brief read. “Illegal immigration imposes significant costs on the States and their people. And creating incentives for illegal immigration puts lives at risk.”
The brief contends immigrant births drive up Medicaid and other costs — both for the medical care accompanying the birth and for the life of the child. “As American citizens, these children may, for example, participate in state welfare programs, receive state healthcare, and obtain a driver’s license.” The brief does not note that those children will likely grow up to be tax-paying adults with jobs — and like Elizabeth, the mental health worker, some might even take jobs in fields where Wyoming faces an acute shortage.
Even Jose, with his pride in the Latino work ethic, agrees that some people come into the country with criminal intent, and he takes no issue with the government finding and deporting them. But criminals mark the slimmest minority of those crossing the border, he said.
Media and political attention have focused on specific instances of horrific crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. But outside those cases, academic studies and research conducted by immigration advocacy groups have not found any link between migration and increased crime. Studies instead have found that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens. The brief by the Republican attorneys general does not offer any statistical rebuke of those studies — stating only that crimes by undocumented immigrants “have elicited national outrage and bipartisan response.”
Migrants that arrive in big waves can strain a community’s services. But Sara feels she and her children benefit, not burden, the state where they’ve long been working, living and going to school.
“We don’t commit crimes, we pay our taxes and we don’t receive any social programming from the government,” she said.
Documents and burdens
Rosa Reyna-Pugh’s family has been in the United States for a long time. Her mom came to the country in 1972 and today has lawful residency — she received a green card during the 1970s and 80s, decades when green cards were more available. It still took her 10 years. Reyna-Pugh and her sister are citizens. They spent their childhood in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border.
The sisters grew up with immigration agents eating next to them in restaurants and evaluating rumors of deportations and workplace raids, they told WyoFile. A heavy law enforcement presence has been part of life along the Rio Grande River since long before Wyoming troopers deployed there.
That exposure to immigration enforcement has helped them spread calm to friends in Wyoming who are worried.
“We’re not in complete panic, but I think we’re more panicking on the policy side of things, because we better understand it,” Reyna-Pugh said.
She and her husband, a military veteran, moved to Wyoming from Mississippi in 2017, and her family followed. The southern state’s economy was struggling. Reyna-Pugh and her sister also often felt people were looking at them as foreigners, they said. Today, she contributes to Wyoming’s civic life as an organizer with the Equality State Policy Center, including through a program for better Latino political advocacy. She lives in Rock Springs with her family but is a presence in the state capitol.
But the more she reads stories about people being detained and questioned, even though they’re citizens, and the more she sees bills like Steinmetz’s or hears increasing rhetoric about criminalizing all immigrants, the more she worries.
Other legislation that would make life harder for Wyoming immigrant families continues to make its way through the Legislature.
Jose and Sara carry driver’s licenses they acquired in New Mexico. That state issues driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, as do 18 others. The Wyoming House passed a bill that would invalidate those driver’s licenses in Wyoming. A senate committee advanced that bill Tuesday.
Reyna-Pugh, her sister and mother have begun carrying their passports with them, anytime they leave the house.
“I’m afraid they’re going to come and pull me in, ask me ‘Where are your papers?’” her sister Rosario said.
She and her family, particularly her husband and sister, talk more and more often about moving to Mexico. Reyna-Pugh sees the defeat of Steinmetz’s bill as a temporary setback for political forces bent on making life difficult for immigrants. Regardless of her citizenship status, those efforts will make Wyoming a more complicated place to live for someone with her skin color and heritage.
“It’s never going to stop,” she said, comparing Steinmetz’s bill to the Hydra, the many-headed monster of Greek mythology. “We might kill this bill, but another one is going to pop up.”
Wyoming
Dan Speas Fish Hatchery temporarily closed to visitors as construction begins on new cool-/warm-water expansion
CASPER, Wyo. — On Thursday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced that the Dan Speas Fish Hatchery will be temporarily closed, beginning June 25, due to the construction of a brand-new, state-of-the-art cool-/warm-water fish production facility.
A release from Game and Fish says that the brief pause in public access is a necessary step to ensure the safety of visitors and staff during the heavy-lifting phases of the project.
“We had hoped to keep access open to the hatchery, but we have discovered there will be too many safety hazards during the demolition phase of construction,” said Lars Alsager, Game and Fish superintendent of Dan Speas. “The Department will reassess the closure in the fall of 2026, once initial demolition and foundational work are safely wrapped up.”
As Wyoming’s largest producer of fish for stocking, the Dan Speas Fish Hatchery — along with the state’s nine other fish hatcheries — will continue its normal cold-water fish production uninterrupted throughout the entire construction process.
Once the expansion is complete, the new facility will dramatically boost Game and Fish’s ability to manage diverse recreational fishing opportunities across Wyoming by raising sport fish locally, rather than importing them from other states.
Anglers can look forward to high-quality, in-state production of walleye, sauger, crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish.
“This project marks a thrilling milestone for Wyoming’s outdoor community, ensuring a robust, self-sustaining future for cold, cool and warm-water sport fishing right here at home,” adds Alan Osterland, chief of fisheries.
The release notes that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is committed to keeping the community in the loop every step of the way. They included a brief snapshot of what to expect throughout the project:
- Fall 2026: Demolition and foundation work conclude, and the department reassesses public access to the facility.
- Fall 2027: Construction of the new cool-/warm-water fish production facility officially ends.
- Spring 2028: The first batch of cool- and warm-water fish will be produced and prepared to stock Wyoming waters.
“The Wyoming Game and Fish Department extends its sincere thanks to the public for their understanding and cooperation as we build a premier fishery asset for generations of anglers to come,” the release states.
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Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have thrown up their hands and told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway.
Conditions aren’t nearly so dire at two of Wyoming’s premier fishing reservoirs, Flaming Gorge in Sweetwater County and Boysen in Fremont County, where limits remain in place and the angling should remain good this summer, a state park manager and marina owner told Cowboy State Daily.
In northeastern Oregon, fishing limits were lifted on three reservoirs on the Powder River, a tributary of the Snake River, which originates in Wyoming.
Colorado is allowing unlimited angling on Antero Reservoir on the South Platte River in the central part of the state, and the Nee Noshe Reservoir to the southeast.
Utah has loosened catch limits on Crouse Reservoir, east of Salt Lake City, and Nine Mile Reservoir, south of the city.
In each instance, state agencies surmised reservoirs are getting so low and stagnant the fish are doomed regardless, according to numerous media reports.
No Emergency, Yet
Despite drought conditions across the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department doesn’t have “immediate plans to enact emergency regulations to liberalize creel limits,” according to fisheries management coordinator Mark Smith.
“However, conditions could change rapidly. If an emergency change to creel limits were to occur that information would be disseminated widely to the public and posted at the water for anglers to find,” Smith said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.
Some of Wyoming’s larger reservoirs have conservation pools, or “dead pools,” to act as buffers for fisheries when water is running low, Smith said.
Even so, “all stored water has limitations,” he added. The water at Flaming Gorge and Boysen is expected to drop enough to render some boat ramps useless.
So, Game and Fish is watching closely for a “tipping point” that might warrant a change in fishing regulations, Smith said.
Bad New For Small Waters
For smaller fisheries, the news isn’t quite so good.
“Ultimately, our goal is to protect all of our fisheries, but we recognize that some of our small waters have already been lost, or will be lost, to drying,” Smith said.
Sometimes that happens so fast there isn’t time to react, he said.
“For example, when we were finally able to access roads and assess small ponds in the 33 Mile country north of Casper this May, most of those fisheries had already succumbed to low water elevations and poor water-quality conditions,” Smith said.
“Other sagebrush stock-water reservoirs could face a similar fate,” he added.
Emergency regulations require the governor’s signature.
“Emergency regulations take effect immediately upon the Governor’s approval and would be lifted if conditions improved and fish were likely to survive,” Smith said.
Boysen Could Lose Boat Ramps
Boysen Reservoir has been roughly 70% full during June, Boysen State Park superintendent John Bass said.
Boysen is one of Wyoming’s top destinations for walleye, and also boasts good trout fishing.
Bass said he doesn’t anticipate the reservoir dropping to the point of mass fish die-offs or calls to lift all fishing limits.
According to Bureau of Reclamation estimates, Boysen will slowly fall, but remain above 50% capacity.
All four Boysen boat ramps are usable, he said. They are Bannon, Tough Creek, Fremont Bay and Cottonwood Bay.
“Although, as the lake starts falling, the Fremont and Cottonwood Ramps will be too shallow to use. But that’s a fairly common occurrence in my 10 years here,” Bass said. “The Brannon and Tough Creek boat ramps will be usable for the remainder of the year, until ice-up.”
‘The Marina Could Be Gone’
Likewise, there’s no reason to think officials will call for a free-for-all at Flaming Gorge, which straddles the Wyoming-Utah state line, Buckboard Marina owner Tony Valdez said.
“I don’t think we’ll be at the stagnant water level, where we could lose all of the fish,” he said.
Flaming Gorge draws anglers from all over the region for its prized kokanee salmon. It’s also known for lake trout and other species.
The Bureau of Reclamation this spring announced that Flaming Gorge is set for a million-acre-foot drawdown to make up for severe shortages downstream at Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line.
An acre foot is the amount of water that would flood an acre of land to the depth of one foot.
Valdez has previously expressed concerns the drawdown could ruin kokanee spawning areas. Kokanee are already under pressure because of competition with lake trout and burbot.
Wyoming Game and Fish and the Utah Division of Wildlife already lifted catch limits on smaller lake trout (under 28 inches) and burbot, in hopes of helping the kokanee.
Valdez said he doesn’t expect fishing limits to be suspended on any other species.
However, boat ramps could be rendered useless as the reservoir drops for the drawdown, he added.
Valdez said his marina could also tank this summer.
“This year, the marina could be gone. In fact, I’ve got to go deal with that right now, and move some stuff around (because of dropping water levels),” he said during a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily.
Catfish Getting Scarce
Valdez said if there’s any danger of water dropping to fish-killing levels it would hit first upstream, at Fontenelle Reservoir.
“If it did get that low, the first one to go would be Fontenelle, then the Green (River) and then Flaming Gorge. But I don’t see it dropping that low,” he said.
Drought has ruined some of the fishing on the Blacks River, which feeds Flaming Gorge on the west side, Valdez said.
That river once was a hot spot for catfish, he noted.
“People still catch catfish near the confluence, more so in the lake than on the river. The river gets stagnant,” he said.
While Flaming Gorge is holding its own for now, the long-term picture could be stark.
During a Tuesday meeting in Denver, members of the Upper Colorado River Commission said conditions along the river system – which includes the Green River – are dire.
Wyoming state engineer Brandon Gebhart said it could be the worst year on record for the Colorado River basin.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
This news report mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of harming themselves, please call 911. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text “WYO” to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line.
CASPER, Wyo. — Three Republican gubernatorial candidates shared their views on a myriad of topics spanning taxation, energy production, resource rights and more Wednesday at the third Politics in the Park forum.
The event at Casper’s Washington Park featured state Sen. Eric Barlow, retired Marine Corps Col. Brent Bien and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder. The candidates seek to replace Gov. Mark Gordon, who cannot run again due to term limits.
Fellow Republican candidate Curt Blake did not attend the forum, which was hosted by the Natrona County Republican Party and the Natrona County Republican Women. Other candidates in the race include Democrat Kenneth Castner and Constitution Party nominee Rebecca Bextel.
Taxes, budget and education
When asked about economic growth and budget strategies, the candidates offered different plans. Bien called for deep tax cuts and deregulation. He expressed support for a November ballot initiative that would exempt 50% of a primary residence’s assessed value from property taxes.
Barlow warned that broad tax cuts could hurt local public services.
“All your property taxes support local governments, your schools, your cities, towns, and counties and your special districts,” he said.
Degenfelder said the key to low taxes and maintaining services is increasing state energy production. She said the state must deliver public services efficiently without overspending, adding that the private sector is solely responsible for creating jobs and economic growth.
Elaborating on job creation and how to stimulate the economy, all three pointed to the state’s public education system as a primary workforce development driver. They stressed a need to shift focus toward trade schools and career-based learning to prepare students for current opportunities.
“We skipped an entire generation of teaching these kids [trades] when they were in school,” Bien said, emphasizing that electricians and welders can currently name their price.
Degenfelder said pushing too many students toward college caused a workforce disconnect and led young people to leave the state. She said Wyoming must prepare students for local job openings to keep them from moving away.
Barlow said educational institutions must partner directly with local industries to align training and secure the economy.
Energy and climate
Questions about uranium mining, rare earth minerals and oil and gas leasing on state lands drew unified support for ramping up extraction and streamlining the permitting process while avoiding federal overreach. Degenfelder spoke about the national security implications of domestic rare earth processing.
“Do you know who processes 90% of rare earths? It’s not another state. It’s China,” Degenfelder said. “I spent time in China. Trust me, we do not want China to be in control of who’s processing rare earth minerals.”
Bien urged the state to speed up leases and permits to generate employment. Barlow supported subsidizing and promoting rare earth processing.
Regarding climate change, Bien rejected the narrative of man-made climate shifts and favored legacy industries.
“I do believe that God controls the climate,” Bien said.
Degenfelder said climate policies have been weaponized against Wyoming’s legacy energy industries, and argued that Wyoming’s cleaner-burning coal should be used globally. Barlow advocated for an all-of-the-above approach where all energy sources compete without subsidies.
When asked about specific infrastructure projects, including an influx of data centers and a proposed pumped hydroelectric project at Seminoe Reservoir, the candidates saw things differently. Bien firmly opposed both. He said a 2010 state law unfairly granted tax waivers to multibillion-dollar corporations, creating a system of corporate favoritism that leaves local ranchers and small business owners empty-handed.
Degenfelder said she supports data centers only if they don’t deplete water resources or raise utility rates for residents. Barlow countered the negative premise of the question entirely, saying the state already has over two dozen data centers without widespread neighbor complaints or resource abuse.
All three candidates agreed the State Board of Land Commissioners has a fiduciary duty to balance energy development with long-term benefits for schools and communities, and that the state must push back against federal regulations that threaten Wyoming’s core industries.
Infrastructure, water and land access
The candidates answered questions about infrastructure, water rights and corner crossing. Degenfelder said keeping water is vital to Wyoming’s survival and pledged to work with the federal government to stop what she considered downstream theft.
“Without water, we don’t have life. Nothing else matters,” Degenfelder said. “And right now, for many, many years, we’ve allowed these downstream states to steal Wyoming’s water and now we’re in the fight for our life … for our water rights.”
2026 Politics in the Park coverage
Bien said he wouldn’t give up any more water rights beyond original compacts. He suggested investing state savings into local water storage and irrigation. Barlow acknowledged that the current multi-year drought has created natural and legal challenges, adding the Legislature is increasing its technical and legal expertise to defend water rights.
On the topic of corner crossing, the candidates noted recent court rulings that favor public access but offered different solutions. Bien said the Legislature should define a corner, Degenfelder favored case-by-case reviews, and Barlow proposed land exchanges to resolve disputes.
“If we want to have less conflict, less corner crossing, let’s work toward fewer corners,” Barlow said. “Let’s work toward consolidations within the current law. Let’s work toward things that make meaningful access available to those public land users and still protect all the private property rights.”
Healthcare and community services
The candidates expressed support for telehealth expansion, rural healthcare access and annual cancer scans for firefighters.
Degenfelder said emergency medical services should be an essential service. Bien said funding models need standardization before making a statewide EMS designation.
Barlow promised to create a healthcare strike team on Aug. 19 if he wins the primary election. He said the team would bring providers, payers and patients together to improve care.
The candidates supported protecting Medicaid for vulnerable people. Bien called for tort reform to lower insurance costs, while Degenfelder spoke about expanding the healthcare workforce pipeline.
On the state’s high veteran suicide rate, candidates supported wrap-around services, with Barlow citing local nonprofit partnerships and Bien pushing for robust VA hotline access. Degenfelder said Wyoming must make sure returning veterans are provided with strong community support and are made fully aware of the services available to them.
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Regarding food insecurity, the candidates advocated for localized solutions, with Bien calling for ranchers to feed local schools and Barlow suggesting potential state support for school boards using their funds for nutrition programs. Degenfelder said her strategy focuses on creating more physical sites for food access and actual meals, rather than expanding government programs.
All three candidates opposed the decriminalization of marijuana.
They agreed the state’s pardon and expungement system needs reform to help nonviolent offenders restore their rights.
When asked what they would stop, Bien named corporate favoritism and regulation.
“Number one is to stop the exodus of young people from the state of Wyoming,” Degenfelder said. “You should not, if you’re a grandparent, have to get on an airplane just to see your kids and your grandchildren.”
Barlow pledged to protect public lands and reduce “the divisiveness, the ugliness that’s going on in our political climate.”
“I don’t believe it serves this nation,” he said.
Federal overreach and transparency
When asked how they would assert state authority, Bien cited the 10th Amendment and a Montana court case involving federal funds.
“So, it is one of those things to where, if it’s not in the best interest of Wyoming and it falls within the 10th Amendment and outside of those enumerated powers, I will definitely push back,” Bien said.
Degenfelder favored working with a sympathetic federal administration to return power to the states. Barlow said he would order the state attorney general to challenge unconstitutional federal mandates.
On transparency, Bien called for a state audit and an end to nondisclosure agreements in public–private partnerships. Barlow pointed to the need to update the Wyoming Public Records Act for the digital age, while Degenfelder focused on giving grassroots citizens direct access to the governor’s office rather than catering to special interests.
Closing thoughts and up next
In a lighter moment regarding daylight saving time, the candidates joked about the inconvenience, with Barlow suggesting moving the clock a half-hour permanently. He and Bien mentioned the possibility of working with governors from neighboring states to press the federal government to do away with the time change. Degenfelder said it’s an issue the Legislature is grappling with.
The evening wrapped up with a lightning round about the candidates’ favorite things about Wyoming. Barlow and Degenfelder praised the honest, hardworking people, while Bien celebrated the state’s wide, wild landscape.
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