Wyoming
Letter: Organizer Explains Issues Behind Saturday Protest – SweetwaterNOW
When you watch the news tonight, you will see that there were hundreds of demonstrations across the country, and they were put on by a coalition of many different groups. The groups involved in putting on these demonstrations across the country are the 50501 Movement, MoveON, Indivisable, Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, The Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and The Purpose.
Today’s demonstration in Rock Springs, and most of the other nine demonstrations that took place across the state of Wyoming today, was put on by the 50501 Wyoming group. The 50501 Wyoming group is a bipartisan group made up of both Republicans and Democrats, and it is the Wyoming faction of the national 50501 Movement. 50501 stands for 50 States 50 Protests 1 Movement. I know that there are a lot of people out there saying that this is the Democrats that are holding these demonstrations, but in fact, the person who started the 50501 Wyoming group is a registered Republican. There are a lot of things that have been happening in the state of Wyoming that have many Republicans worried, as well as Democrats, and Independents.
One of the issues that was being discussed during today’s demonstration was the closure of the Green River Wyoming’s MSHA office, by DOGE, and how that will affect the mining community in this area. The main issues that the members of the 50501 Wyoming group are concerned about are the DOGE cuts to, or elimination of:
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- The Wyoming U.S. Geological Survey Office in Cheyenne, WY
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department in Lander, WY
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Cheyenne, WY
- The closure of the Social Security Administration office in Cody, WY
- The Closure of the Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) office in Green River, WY
- The Office of U.S. Attorneys in Lander, WY
- The funding freeze of Wyoming’s Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, and the Local Food for Schools program, as well as the $535,000 in DOGE cuts to the Food Bank of Wyoming, which is particularly concerning because food insecurity need in Wyoming is at its highest level in 10 years.
- DOGE firings of Wyoming State Parks employees
- DOGE firings of National Park Service employees
- DOGE elimination of 60,000 to 80,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- The DOGE firings of so many Wyoming U.S. Forest Service employees, on Feb.14, 2025, that they referred to it as “the Valentine’s Day Massacre”
- DOGE firings of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, and the elimination of the Fish and Wildlife’s tribal Lander, WY office
- DOGE cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which affects Wyoming farmers
- DOGE firings of 30 or more full-time staff at the Bridger-Teton National Forest
- DOGE firings of 20% of permanent workers at the Shoshone National Forest
This is not a complete list of all the cuts or office closures that Elon Musk and his DOGE team have made in Wyoming, and it’s not a complete list of all the cuts and closures that happened across the country. These are just some of the many issues that the people in the 50501 Wyoming group are the most concerned with when it comes to the illegal cuts that DOGE has been making. The 50501 Wyoming group is very concerned that the goal of Elon Musk, and DOGE does not seem to be the elimination of wasteful spending, like they claim, but instead its goal seems to be to eliminate federal employees, federal offices, federal aid for those in need, and eventually the entire federal government.
There is also a long list of other issues, not related to DOGE, that our members, the citizens of Wyoming, and people all across the country are worried about. Things like our lack of national security, the war against education, the lack of funding for special education, people who immigrated to the United States LEGALLY being treated like criminals, LGBTQ+ rights, Women’s rights, Civil Rights, the protection of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, the war in Isreal and the Gaza Strip, the war in Russia and Ukraine, Trump’s threats to take over the Panama Canal, Canada & Greenland (which could get us into a war), Trump’s trade war with every single country on the planet, the stock market tanking along with our 401Ks, how Trump’s tariffs are going to make the cost of everything go up for years to come, and much, much more!
Overall today’s protest was very peaceful, there were very few problems, and we received a lot of supportive honks and waves as people drove by, cheering us on. We are so proud to live in a country where we have a first amendment that gives us freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free speech, the right to petition our government, and last but not least, the freedom to assemble peacefully. It warmed my heart today to see so many Rock Springs residents, about 100 or so, exercising their first amendment rights.
For those of you who like to spread the false rumors that we are all paid by some imaginary billionaire, and that we are being bused in from out of state, you should know that I was born right here, in Rock Springs, in the old hospital at the top of C Street. I was raised in Rock Springs, and I have lived here my entire life. And most of the faces that I saw out there today, at the demonstration, were people I have known my whole life. There were both Republicans and Democrats there, and I’m sure a few Independents sprinkled in as well. They senior citizens, young Gen Z’s, and Gen Xers like me! They were all people who love and care deeply about the state of Wyoming, and Sweetwater County. I would like to think that, whether we agree or disagree, we can all respect each other’s first amendment rights to peacefully assemble when there are things happening in this country that we do not agree with. Peace!
Sincerely,
50501 Wyoming – Rock Springs Volunteer Representative
Julie Smith
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The College of Southern Idaho men’s basketball team defeated the Western Wyoming Mustangs 81-62 in the opening round of the Battle for the Boot tournament Thursday night.
The Golden Eagles, who entered the game with a 2-0 record, controlled the game with balanced scoring and strong defensive play.
Jalen Lyn led the way scoring-wise as he poured in 26 and Nate Ahner was right behind him with a 20-point night of his own.
Defensively Kobe Kesler and Nate Anher each forced four turnovers, three blocks and a steal for Kesler and vice versa for Ahner.
CSI established an early rhythm in the first half with crisp ball movement thanks in large part to Ace Reiser who led the team with seven assists, many coming late in the first half.
The Golden Eagles led by 10 at half and pulled away even more in the second to secure the 19-point victory and improve to 3-0 on the season.
The Golden Eagles will face Clarendon College Friday night at 7:00 in their tournament semifinal matchup.
Copyright 2025 KMVT. All rights reserved.
Legislative attempts to bolster the integrity of Wyoming elections, which some officials statewide insist are already trustworthy, aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
That’s after Wyoming lawmakers on the interim Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee forwarded seven bills that would revamp the way the state runs and operates its election processes. Wyoming voted for Pres. Trump more than any other state in 2024.
The seven bills could make recounts more common, restrict ballot harvesting, require more signatures for independent candidates to get onto general election ballots, allow for more hand count audits, and ban the use of student and non-photo IDs when voting.
The seven draft bills include:
Sen. Bill Landen (R-Casper) said one of his constituents told him the ID bill could make it harder for his 87-year-old mom to vote.
“I circle back and go, ‘Well, what exactly are we doing here?’” said Landen.
Supporters of the legislation, like Wyoming Freedom Caucus member Rep. Steve Johnson (R-Cheyenne), repeated the contention that the bills are about bolstering election integrity in a state where some feel its elections could be manipulated and that policy should be reshaped based on that possibility.
The latest suite of bills to reconfigure state elections come as doubts about election integrity have increased following false claims that the 2020 general election was stolen from Pres. Donald Trump.
Johnson quoted from the Wyoming Constitution during discussion of the independent candidates bill.
“Article Six, Section Thirteen: ‘Purity of elections to be provided for,’” he read, continuing, “that’s the major cause [of why] we’re here. We want our elections to be free and fair and honest. And there’s a lot of people that don’t think that necessarily all the elections are free and fair.”
Critics said repeated discussions of the need for election integrity are themselves undermining confidence in elections.
“The comments about the decrease in confidence reminds me of the man who murdered his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan,” said Gail Symons, who operates the Wyoming civics website Civics307 and ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat in Sheridan in the last primary. “We’re losing confidence because we are always talking about how people don’t have confidence.”
The bill that would expand the use of hand counting for certain recounts caught her attention in particular, she added.
“There’s unambiguous evidence,” she said. “They are less accurate, less reliable, more time consuming, dramatically more expensive and logistically unsustainable. All of these bills are based … on assumption, supposition, speculation, conjecture, fallacy, unsubstantiated theories, baseless claims and debunked conspiracy theories.”
Officials like Secretary of State Chuck Gray have said similar election bills are about preventing voter fraud and restoring election integrity.
But a Wyoming Public Radio investigation published in October shows only 7.5% of all formal election complaints sent to Gray’s office since he took office in January 2023 to late July 2025 alleged such fraud.
The committee voted to sponsor all seven election bills in the upcoming budget session beginning on Feb. 9. They join another three election bills previously backed by the committee.
Redistricting update
After finishing consideration of the election bills, the committee turned its attention to a report from its Reapportionment Subcommittee on alternative redistricting methods for the state Legislature.
That panel was created after a bill passed in the last general session directing lawmakers to study differences in how the state and federal constitutions carve up legislative districts across the Equality State.
The issue at hand has to do with the fact that the Wyoming Constitution says counties should have at least one representative and one senator, and that districts should follow county lines.
But a federal district court case in 1991 concluded Wyoming’s districts violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution that requires equal voting weight for citizens, otherwise known as “one person, one vote.”
That case led to Wyoming’s current multi-county districts for House and Senate seats.
In the end, despite constituent suggestions in Weston County for how to get around the discrepancy, the subcommittee’s report says, “the Subcommittee does not see a path to compile [comply] with both constitutions on this issue. A reapportionment plan that has districts with greater than ten percent population deviation is extremely unlikely to survive a constitution[al] challenge under current federal court precedent.”
That said, the report ends with an entreaty to the Management Council for further study of solutions to the problem in 2026.
“It is possible that there may be actions of Congress which could help to address this issue and possibly other solutions which have not yet been presented,” the report says. “The Subcommittee requests that the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee submit this as an interim topic to the Management Council for the 2026 interim and that Management Council approves further study on this reapportionment topic.”
All bills besides the biennium budget and a possible redistricting bill will need a two-thirds majority vote for introduction in their chamber of origin just to see the light of day in February.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
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