Wyoming
Trump's deportation agenda taking hold with Wyoming Legislature, some sheriffs – WyoFile
CHEYENNE—The Legislature and some sheriffs are simultaneously pursuing programs to align Wyoming with incoming President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, and make the state an unwelcoming place for people in the country without permission.
House lawmakers aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus have brought bills to punish employers who hire undocumented immigrants and local government officials who fail to cooperate with federal authorities. They also seek to make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to drive in the state, even with a valid license from another state.
Meanwhile, a growing number of sheriffs are pursuing agreements with the federal government to position county jails more firmly in the service of federal immigration enforcement.
Sheriffs in Laramie, Campbell and Carbon counties recently told WyoFile about discussions with U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials regarding agreements to assist with the deportation of noncitizens arrested for non-immigration offenses. Sweetwater County has had such an agreement in place since 2020.
All of those counties line either Interstate 80 or Interstate 90.
Taken together, lawmakers and the sheriffs could make Wyoming hostile territory for people who have entered the country illegally, even if they’re just passing through. If the driver’s license bill becomes law, for example, undocumented immigrants licensed to drive by other states who are traveling through Wyoming could run the risk of being jailed and slated for deportation.
Gov. Mark Gordon has also touted immigration enforcement, noting in his State of the State address that he deployed a contingent of the Wyoming Highway Patrol to support Texas during its standoff with the federal government this past summer.
Since then, he said, Texas’ governor sent a detachment of its law enforcement to Wyoming, to talk with local police agencies about “what we need to do in our heartland.”
Counter lobby
Advocates for the state’s immigrant population say muddling local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement will make communities less safe by fostering distrust between police and those they’re sworn to protect and serve.
The enforcement drive will also hurt the state’s economy, advocates say, by driving off undocumented workers who came to the country to work.
“This isn’t going after what they think it’s going after,” American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming Advocacy Director Antonio Serrano said.
“Wyoming is finally starting to grow. There’s a lot of construction, there’s a lot of stuff going up and immigrants are building that. They’re helping Wyoming grow. In the Wyoming I grew up in, we respected people who wanted to work and work hard.”
Undocumented immigrants and their advocates are principally up against the Freedom Caucus, an ascendant political bloc committed to supporting Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda across the board.
The measure to punish errant employers, a bill brought by freshman Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, is sparking broader opposition. Lobbyists for the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation and the Wyoming Hospitality and Travel Coalition told WyoFile their members were likely to oppose that measure.
“We do not support the intentional hiring of illegal workers,” Chris Brown, executive director of the hospitality coalition, said. “We also don’t support new, heavy-handed regulations that could hurt Wyoming’s main street businesses.”
Wyoming farmers’ longtime lobbyist Brett Moline agreed. “For my agricultural guys it’s so hard to get somebody here legally,” he said. “[The federal government] has made it so difficult to get labor legally, that’s why people are coming illegally.”
State lawmakers are wading into a federal issue, Moline cautioned. “I’m wondering if this is even appropriate for the state. This is something that needs to be settled at the federal level,” he said.
Whether business interests will also throw their weight against measures like the driver’s license bill remains to be seen.
House Bill 116, “Driver’s licenses-unauthorized alien restrictions,” would invalidate the licenses issued to undocumented immigrants by as many as 19 states. State legislatures like California’s created such licenses to reduce the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers on the road, as well as embrace undocumented immigrants they consider valuable to economies and communities.
That view isn’t shared by many lawmakers in Cheyenne. “In Wyoming, we shouldn’t provide legal privileges to those here illegally,” Rep. Pepper Ottman, a Riverton Republican and the bill’s principal sponsor, wrote in an email to WyoFile.
Law enforcement chiefs interviewed by WyoFile said they weren’t entirely certain if undocumented immigrants driving with such licenses would be detained. In many cases, they said, offenders would be issued a ticket then — if someone else could take the wheel — travel on. But if not, they may end up stranded or, if there are other criminal charges, even jailed.
“If you don’t have a driver’s license you can’t drive,” said Col. Tim Cameron, who directs the Wyoming Highway Patrol. “They would need an alternative method of transportation or another driver.”
Community resources
Community organizers around the state are beginning to network with each other to oppose the bills, and prepare immigrants for increased policing activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Serrano said. But the state’s network of immigrant advocates is spread out and somewhat disconnected.
“We’re trying to bring everybody together,” Serrano said. “People are scared and they want to know their rights. [Lawmakers and law enforcement] are sending a lot of signals to immigrant folks that ‘you’re not welcome in Wyoming.’”
The state also has a dearth of attorneys practicing immigration law, both to help people pursue legal status and to defend them in deportation proceedings.
Rosslyn Read, legal director of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project, estimated there are six or seven attorneys including herself dedicated to immigration law in the state. Read’s approach is even rarer since she runs a nonprofit and charges clients based on their income.
Demand for her legal services has skyrocketed, she said, as people scramble for asylum status or to rectify expired work visas. “Supply to demand is totally out of control,” she said of immigrants seeking legal help in a system she views as stacked against them.
“The rhetoric of ‘just get in line’ is completely false,” she said. “The system is not really designed to encourage authorized immigration.”
Caucus agenda
Freedom Caucus members see Ottman’s driver’s license bill as another layer of protection against illegal voting. The legislation is a part of the Freedom Caucus’ leading five priorities the bloc hopes to pass out of the House within the first 10 days. It’s also backed by Secretary of State Chuck Gray.
In a legislative meeting Wednesday, Gray cited one case of someone voting in Wyoming while in the country illegally, in 2020. In 2023 the federal government discovered the fraud and the Campbell County clerk removed the person from the voting roll.
Rep. Joel Guggenmos, also aligned with the caucus, has brought House Bill 133, “Sanctuary cities, counties and prohibition,” which would charge government officials who don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities with a felony. The charge carries up to five years in prison.
The bill would ban the passage of any “sanctuary” laws in the state that prevent local law enforcement from sharing information with federal immigration authorities (there are none today), and cut funding to counties or cities that try such legislation.
Recent conservative attention on Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr is driving the bill, Guggenmos told WyoFile. Carr drew the ire of Wyoming’s Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and conservative state lawmakers when ICE reported Carr did not hold undocumented immigrants in jail until federal agents could collect them for deportation.
“Every elected official and law enforcement agent takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution,” Guggenmos said. “That is the number one thing that they swear an oath to.” In doing so, Guggenmos said, those officials align themselves with the federal government, whose “number one task is to protect us from foreign invaders.”
Carr has not held people on ICE detainers — a request from the agency that jails hold people until they can be picked up for deportation — because they are not signed by a judge, according to other news reports.
Carr did not respond to WyoFile requests for comment. But his defenders argue that what really runs afoul of the Constitution is holding people in jail after a judge releases them.
Federal courts have found ICE detainers to be unconstitutional in some cases, particularly when a sheriff hasn’t entered a legal agreement with the federal government to participate in immigration enforcement.
Read, the Jackson attorney, said she believes Carr does cooperate with ICE, by alerting them to undocumented immigrants who go into the jail. What Hageman and the Freedom Caucus are asking of him goes beyond the law, she said.
“He and I disagree about this,” Read said. “I wish [Carr] wouldn’t call ICE, but I am defending him because he is doing what is legally required.”
Growing cooperation
Other sheriffs are not hesitating to hold immigrants in their jails for ICE.
Conservatives accuse Carr of ignoring ICE’s requests over a nearly two-year period from February 2023 to mid-December 2024. During the same period, sheriffs in the state’s six most populous counties complied with every detainer they received, according to data provided by ICE.
A mounting number of sheriffs are now seeking to solidify their relationships with ICE through contracts called 287g agreements. Those agreements allow deputies to serve ICE warrants on people in the jail, streamlining deportations and blunting questions about the legality of holding undocumented immigrants after their release date for the local crime.
The agreements only cover people brought to jails on suspicion of committing a non-immigration offense. Deputies could not arrest someone solely for being an undocumented immigrant, sheriffs say, and are also not supposed to ask people about their immigration status while conducting police work. But civil liberty advocates say the system is ripe for racial profiling and abuse, if motivated deputies start looking for a way to detain people they think are in the country illegally.
“People forget how mixed-status families are,” ACLU advocate Antonio Serrano said. “Maybe some of the kids are citizens, but one of them isn’t, or one parent isn’t.”
As a consequence, opponents of the agreements like Read and Serrano say public safety degrades in communities where local law enforcement works closer with the federal government.
“It’s not just a constitutional or jurisdictional principle,” Read said. “When immigrants don’t trust the police, it hinders the police’s ability to do their jobs and arrest people who are dangerous. If you don’t have cooperative witnesses or [you have] people who are afraid to call and report a crime because it puts their immigration status in jeopardy, it makes everyone less safe.”
Campbell, Carbon and Laramie counties’ sheriffs all emphasized in interviews with WyoFile that their deputies would not be checking immigration status when going about their jobs pulling people over and investigating crimes.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak, who is pursuing the more aggressive of the two types of agreements the federal government extends to sheriffs, said he is aware that Cheyenne’s immigrant community might perceive heightened risks from his deputies. He insists that is not the case.
“We want people to come to us to report crimes,” he said. “Our priority is to get criminals who commit crimes.”
He will engage in continued community outreach to ensure immigrants in his jurisdiction know that “we are there to help you. If you call us we are going to help you,” he said.
But Kozak is also outspoken about his desire to aid ICE, and he’s generated headlines for his enthusiasm about engaging with federal immigration enforcement. He recently posted a splashy neon “vacancy” sign above his jail door, in the style of a roadside motel, to advertise that he has space to house more detainees, including federal ones.
The pro-deportation sentiment from the Capitol and sheriffs’ departments will inevitably degrade a sense of trust in Wyoming’s communities, Serrano, the ACLU advocate, said. And if deportations do ramp up to extremes, as Trump is promising, it’s only a matter of time before people being detained and removed from the country start straining Wyoming communities, and families, he said.
“People forget how mixed-status families are,” he said. “Maybe some of the kids are citizens, but one of them isn’t, or one parent isn’t. It’s going to cause a lot of problems.”
CASPER — Discarded rocks thrown outside the geology department at an upstate New York college in the 1920s became gems in the eyes of the boy who picked them up.
They were also stepping stones to a career and life that led to 68 years of leading the growth of Wyoming’s — and America’s — mining industry.
Politics and philanthropy also helped John Wold earn accolades like Wyoming Man of the Year in 1968 and Oil/Gas and Mineral Man of the 20th Century in 1999.
But the longtime Casper resident left that century behind and kept going to work in his downtown office, pursuing new ideas and enterprises nearly until his death on Feb. 19, 2017, at age 100.
Peter Wold, 78, remembers his dad as a man who was “driven” and focused, but who always made time for his wife and children.
As he co-leads the oil and gas business started by his father back in 1950, Peter said his dad’s portrait on the wall reminds him of the principles and “purpose” that guided his life.
“I think that he motivated me, and I would say the same for my brother and my sister,” he said. “We’ve all tried to stay engaged in community activities and philanthropy and be good fathers and a mother.”
He not only contributed to the evolution of Wyoming’s energy industries, his financial generosity endowed a geology chair and two chairs of religion at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
He also endowed the Centennial Chair of Energy at the University of Wyoming and his lead 1994 donation to Casper College became the Wold Physical Science Center.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, who characterized Wold as a “legend” when he died in 2017, said even though nearly a decade has passed since then, his legacy is all over the Cowboy State — even if younger generations now don’t recognize his name.
“As a professional geologist, John’s contributions to the mining industry revolutionized the way our nation extracts minerals today,” Barrasso said. “Casper College students continue to benefit from John’s generosity and are reminded of him every time they walk through the Wold Physical Science Center.
“John passed on his love for Wyoming and his energy expertise to his family,” the senator added. “He would be so proud of how his children and grandchildren carry on the family business and his tradition of giving back to the state and people he loved so much.”
Big Into Rock
Peter Wold said his dad’s successes in part came from his education, continuous learning and ability to compartmentalize and head for the goal — something he loved to do on the hockey rink as well.
Born in New Jersey, John Wold grew up on the Union College campus where his father, Peter I. Wold, was a distinguished physics professor. The family lived on campus.
While growing up, a young Wold became fascinated with the excess rocks being tossed out by the college’s geology department and started his own mineral collection.
Following graduation from high school, the Eagle Scout attended Union College and became an exchange student at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
While at Union College, he played on the hockey team, and he graduated with a bachelor of arts in geology and went on to Cornell University to earn a master’s degree in geology as well.
Prior to World War II, Wold worked in Oklahoma and Texas for an oil company, but in 1941 he volunteered to help the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ordinance researching magnetic mines.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was sent to Midway Island as a physicist involved in degaussing or demagnetizing submarines to protect them from magnetic Japanese mines.
Navy Man And Inventor
Although he never officially attended Navy officer training school, Wold was given a commission and went on after his Midway assignment to serve as a gunnery officer and executive officer on destroyer escorts.
Peter Wold said his dad’s wartime ship assignments did not involve any significant battles.
It was while in the Navy that Wold had an idea to improve the masks of divers while watching them work.
He applied for a patent in July 1946 for his improved “underwater goggle.”
“The purpose of this invention is to provide an efficient underwater goggle, simple of manufacture, which is of such form that it will fit with water-tightness the contours of most faces without alteration or tailoring by the wearer,” he wrote on the application.
Wold wrote that the design was meant to be flexible enough that it could be worn “across or below the nose of the diver with equal water-tight integrity.”
The inventor received his patent in Casper on Oct. 3, 1950, and it was something he was always proud of.
Peter Wold said he kept it framed on his office wall during his business career.
-
John Wold loved Wyoming and enjoyed fishing, skiing, and outdoor activities. (Courtesy Peter Wold) -
John and Jane Wold on parade during his political career. (Courtesy Peter Wold) -
John Wold served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and worked demagnetizing submarines as well as serving as an officer on destroyer escorts. John Wold and his wife Jane in their later years. (Courtesy Peter Wold)
The Oil Field Calls
After the war, John Wold married his wife, Jane, and worked for Barnsdall Oil on the Gulf Coast.
By 1949, Peter was born, and that winter the Wold family was sent to Casper to establish an office for Barnsdall Oil.
The family drove from Houston to Denver and found the roads north had been blocked by the infamous blizzards of 1949 for the previous two weeks.
Peter Wold said his dad liked to tell the story of how he only had enough money for one night in a Denver hotel.
The next day, his dad said it was like a “miracle” and the road opened, allowing them to reach Casper. The highway shut the next day and stayed closed for two more weeks.
In 1950, Wold launched his own firm, Wold Oil Properties, as a consulting petroleum geologist, and never looked back.
A search of Wold in old newspapers shows his progression of accomplishments in both his business life and Republican politics in Wyoming.
Ahead Of His Time
In 1953, in addition to growing his new business, he was a member of the Natrona County Republican Party Executive Committee.
He ran for and won a state House seat in 1956. In 1960, he became the state Republican chairman, as well as a member of the nation’s Republican National Committee.
In 1964, he was the Republican nominee for Wyoming’s U.S. Senate seat to run against Sen. Gale McGee.
His political office high point culminated in his election as Wyoming’s U.S. House representative in 1968 as Richard Nixon was winning the White House.
He was the first professional geologist ever elected to the U.S. House. While there, he authored and sponsored the National Mining and Minerals Policy Act of 1970.
That legislation was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Wyoming’s and the nation’s mining industry.
It directed the U.S. to develop a stable domestic mining industry that’s economically sound and encourages private investment. It also called for standards to dispose of and reclaim mining waste and land to mitigate environmental impacts.
While he was proud of his time in Congress, the scientist and businessman who liked to get things done was stymied there.
“He recognized that he was one of 435 congressmen and that frustrated him,” Peter Wold said. “He said, ‘I’m going to go for the Senate.’”
In 1970, he took on McGee again and lost, as Republicans took a beating in the Nixon midterm election.
Peter Wold said his dad never ran for office again but stayed interested in politics.
On the business side of his life, John Wold excelled and was able to use his geology, chemistry and economics savvy to see opportunities that others might miss.
He also could see when those opportunities were turning south.
During his lifetime, Wold started companies that got involved in pursuing coal, uranium, trona, and coal gasification. But each of those sectors came at different times of his life and career.
“When he focused on something he focused primarily on that project,” Peter Wold said. “He was active in the coal business, in the uranium business. But he did those separately, compartmentalized.
“You have to be really good at what you are doing.”
-
John and Jane Wold at their ranch property. (Courtesy Peter Wold) -
John Wold poses with his extended family. (Courtesy Peter Wold) -
John and Jane Wold left a legacy that continues through the next generations of the their family. (Courtesy Peter Wold)
Business Ventures
A joint venture with Peabody Energy and Consolidation Coal Co. (now CONSOL Energy) put Rocky Mountain coal in the spotlight.
In 1973, he started Wold Nuclear Co. and was a co-discoverer of the Christensen Ranch uranium ore deposit in the Powder River Basin.
He also became the principal in the development of the Highland uranium mine in Converse County, which once was the largest uranium production operation in the U.S.
Peter Wold said his dad used a technique with paper cups and a tiny piece of film on the bottom of each cup that would be buried for a few days on potential uranium lands.
While he did not invent the technique to detect radon gas, he used it on a huge scale.
“They wanted to see what radiation penetrations there were,” Peter Wold said. “They laid thousands of those cups all over Wyoming, New Mexico, and Texas.
“With that information they were able to determine there were uranium ore bodies.”
Wold’s holdings of potential uranium lands in south Texas led to an unforeseen talc mining opportunity, so he created American Talc Co., which became one of the largest talc operations in North America. It was sold to Daltile in 2017.
Wold’s interest in trona mining in the southern Green River Basin led to patents on solutions-based mining processes that he worked to create and develop with a Colorado firm.
But several years of work and roadblocks led him to sell the reserves he bought. The technology he helped develop, however, helped transform the trona industry.
Wold also bought a coal gasification idea during the first decade of this century and became chairman and CEO of GasTech.
The company sought to develop gas from deep layers of coal in the Powder River Basin through pumping oxygen down into the beds and setting them on fire.
He worked with an Australian company that had pioneered a similar concept in Australia.
A demonstration plant never came to development.
Peter Wold said his dad’s efforts to develop coal and coal gasification in Campbell County came from his understanding that the coal, natural gas, and oil in the county held more BTUs of energy than all of Saudi Arabia’s oil.
During his life, John Wold’s expertise was sought by many companies that recruited him for their boards.
Hole In The Wall Ranch
Outside of energy, Wold enjoyed Wyoming’s outdoors and sports.
In 1977, he bought the Hole in the Wall Ranch southwest of Kaycee where the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang left their hoofprints fleeing the law.
Peter Wold said his dad did not buy the land because of the history.
“It was because of the fishing,” he said. “The Hole in the Wall Ranch has the Middle Fork of the Powder River as it comes out of the Bighorn Mountains and it runs through the ranch. And it is really good fishing.
“Dad loved to recreate and he loved fishing and one thing led to another and he said, ‘We ought to buy this place,’ so we did.”
While his dad was not that interested in cattle ranching, Peter Wold is.
Today, the ranch runs 600-800 head of Black Angus cattle.
Wold also was key to the development of the Hogadon Basin Ski Area on Casper Mountain and helped support the building of the Casper Ice Arena, where he coached young hockey players.
As he grew older, macular degeneration, a trait that ran in his family, started to take Wold’s eyesight.
Peter Wold said his dad’s loss of vision frustrated him. Even though he couldn’t see well, he kept driving a car into his mid-90s.
“He didn’t like being dependent on someone to take him to the grocery store or bring him down to the office,” Peter Wold said. “The macular degeneration was very discouraging to him.”
Before he died, John Wold put money toward finding a cure for his blindness that became the Wold Family Macular Degeneration Center at Oregon Health & Science University’s Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health and Science University.
The institute touts the center as a “central hub” for ongoing research and clinical care efforts as well as a “catalyst for further discovery and innovation by having research, clinical care and clinical trials all in one place.”
Throughout his life, the former college athlete never stopped moving and working to stay fit.
Wold would do leg lifts and stomach crunches before getting out of bed. In his 90s, he was still running down his street even on ice and snow.
He continued to challenge himself mentally and never retired.
Legacy Of Giving
As Peter Wold and his brother Jack continue to work in the oil business started by their father, they and their sister, Priscilla Longfield, also continue the legacy of giving launched by their parents.
Peter Wold said the family foundation donates about $3 million a year.
The foundation’s directors include his brother, sister and himself, but John Wold’s eight grandchildren are now involved in choosing who the benefactors will be as well.
While his dad could be a “taskmaster” who wanted his children to have purpose and goals, Peter Wold said he also instilled a desire for them to make a difference in their time.
Peter Wold agrees he feels a “weight” and responsibility that flow from his dad’s accomplishments, and he thinks about that.
“How can I live up to his expectations? What should I be doing that would have him proud?” Peter Wold said. “He left a wonderful legacy that our whole family is proud of.”
When John Wold died at 100, the Casper Star-Tribune dubbed him Wyoming’s “citizen of a century.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
Oil City News publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil City News or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by following the link at our opinion section.
Wyoming Sun Bucks is a net gain for children, families
Dear Casper,
Rep. Ken Pendergraft’s recent column opposing the Sun Bucks program raises concerns about cost, but it does so in a way that risks giving readers an incomplete picture.
It is true that the Department of Family Services requested approximately $3.5 million for startup and operations. However, that figure represents a combined state and federal investment, split evenly. Wyoming’s share is half of that — and more importantly, those dollars are not intended to purchase food directly. They fund the administrative framework required to deliver federally funded benefits to eligible children.
Those responsibilities are not trivial. They include verifying eligibility, processing applications, maintaining technology systems, preventing fraud and ensuring benefits are accurately distributed. Without that infrastructure, the program simply cannot function, and no child would receive assistance.
The initial startup cost of $1.6 million covers one-time expenses such as building the IT system, setting up application processing, contracting with the EBT vendor that issues and loads benefit cards, and establishing temporary staffing and support systems to serve families statewide. This is not “an office for one person,” but the foundation of a program designed to reach roughly 32,000 children.
Once operational, the ongoing cost to Wyoming is estimated at about $483,000 per year in state funds. In return, the program would deliver approximately $3.84 million annually in federal food benefits to Wyoming children. That is a significant net gain for families across the state.
While the article emphasizes administrative expenses, it overlooks the scale of the benefit those costs unlock. The question is not whether administration exists — it must — but whether the outcome justifies the investment. In this case, a relatively modest state contribution enables millions in direct food assistance to flow into Wyoming communities.
Reasonable people can debate the role of government programs. But that debate should be grounded in a full accounting of both costs and benefits. When viewed in that light, the Sun Bucks program is less about bureaucracy and more about whether Wyoming chooses to participate in a federally funded effort to help ensure children have access to food during the summer months.
Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Department of Family Services Oversight Council
Evansville
Wyoming GOP endorsement of candidates
Dear Casper,
I have read about the plans for the Wyoming Republican party to endorse specific candidates in the upcoming primary election. It is my understanding that the state law currently prevents the Wyoming Republican party from officially endorsing a candidate. I agree with the party’s position that this is not in keeping with the party and its members’ First Amendment right to free speech.
However, I think that the party should be careful in exercising this right. As the purpose of the primary election is to select the candidate that the majority of the registered Republican party members feel is best suited for the position, it feels like there could be a conflict of interest in explicitly endorsing a specific candidate without receiving the input from all of the registered members of the party.
Without seeking the input of the entire Republican electorate, how will the party itself provide a fair and accurate endorsement of a candidate? I certainly hope that the party leadership is not intending to offer an endorsement on behalf of the entire party based simply on what they (the leadership) might believe. To offer such an endorsement without seeking the input from all of the party members would be anti-democratic and would invoke Orwellian images of the party which, rather than listening to and responding to the input from the party members, would tell the party members what they should think.
If the members of the party leadership wish to offer an endorsement, they should do so as individuals and should not presume to speak for the entire membership of the party, at least not before the entire Republican electorate has had a chance to provide input regarding a party-level endorsement.
To circumvent this problem, I would recommend that the Republican party hold a vote among all of its registered members to determine whom the party ought to endorse. Maybe we could hold an event where polling places are established, where party members can go to indicate their preference for that endorsement. This would provide a fair and democratic method to ensure that the Republican party’s endorsement reflects the will of the party members.
I think that there might be an event similar to what I have described scheduled for Aug. 18. Maybe the party could do more or less the same thing for their endorsement event — or just wait until then.
Carlos Buckner
Casper
Related
-
Virginia2 minutes agoDemocrat Rep. Ted Lieu calls Virginia Supreme Court decision on redistricting
-
Washington8 minutes agoMother’s Day Bunch at Lady Madison | Washington DC
-
Wisconsin14 minutes agoHow many homes could be built in Northeast Wisconsin in 2026?
-
West Virginia20 minutes agoWest Virginians weigh in on two races for unexpired terms to state Supreme Court – WV MetroNews
-
Wyoming26 minutes agoWyoming People: ‘Man Of The Century’ John Wold Pioneered Modern U.S. Mining
-
Crypto32 minutes agoCLARITY Act Poll: 52% Support, 70% Say US Should Have Passed Crypto Legislation
-
Finance36 minutes ago
WHO says its finances are stable, but uncertainties loom – Geneva Solutions
-
Fitness44 minutes agoTry the windmill exercise and thank me later – it ‘targets your obliques from every angle’ and improves core strength more than Russian twists
