In the face of national loss, Wyoming Democrats must seek out more local wins

Losing in politics is always painful, but the severity of that pain is often directly related to the expectation of winning.

Wyoming Democrats have had increasingly little power in the Legislature, and realize their vote in the presidential election is meaningless because Republicans always win by massive margins here. No one, especially life-long members of the party like me, expects to be dancing in the street after most elections.

But I was planning to dance a little jig with my wife in front of our Cheyenne home whenever Vice President Kamala Harris hit the magic 270 Electoral College votes Tuesday night. Like millions of like-minded folks across the country, we've felt robbed since Donald Trump unexpectedly smashed the "Blue Wall" of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016, denying Hillary Clinton the victory we were convinced she would clinch.

It was stunning to see Trump do it again, this time to Harris, in an even more convincing fashion. It's mind-boggling that after his catastrophic presidency, two impeachments, 34 felony convictions and other criminal indictments, even more Wyomingites — 73%! — voted for Trump then they did the previous two times.

I'm not alone in wondering how three out of four of my Wyoming neighbors could possibly think this pawn of Russia's Vladimir Putin and other dictators should be handed the nuclear codes, or allowed anywhere near the White House. I don't mind if he pardons a few turkeys at Thanksgiving, but not the ones who stormed the U.S. Capitol and wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence for not following his orders to steal the election.

While that's obviously a huge cloud overhanging the entire world, we've got other things to also worry about in the Equality State. Wyoming Democrats have tried to steel themselves for the grim reality that the far-right House Freedom Caucus and its allies in the Senate would dominate the Legislature come January. These uncompromising lawmakers could make devastating budget cuts to health care, education and essential services.

Based on experience, it's a given that dealing with Wyoming's affordable housing crisis and huge tax revenue losses from the minerals industry will be put on the back burner during the next legislative session in favor of GOP hot-button issues like anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ bills that will further divide the state.

But that war was over after August's primary, when the Freedom Caucus defeated its traditional conservative rivals in the Wyoming Caucus, who had ruled for decades. The only suspense for Democrats was whether the party's few lawmakers would return to the House and Senate.

Low expectations can actually be a positive, if you aren't an overachiever. Things can't get much worse when you only have seven legislators in a 93-member body, but Tuesday evening Democratic incumbents held their seats and welcomed one more to their ranks in Cheyenne.

The House District 33 seat won by Democrat Ivan Posey is an important one, for two reasons. First, the Eastern Shoshone educator will be the only Indigenous state lawmaker, after the decision by Sen. Affie Ellis (R-Cheyenne), a Navajo lawyer, not to seek re-election.

Second, Posey's victory sent incumbent Rep. Sarah Penn (R-Lander) packing after one term in the House. A nurse, she was a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus who helped win support for Wyoming's abortion bans while opposing Medicaid expansion and funding for early childhood education. Posey is also "pro-life" but disagreed with Penn on the two other vital issues.

Fortunately, three incumbent House Democrats in Albany County — Reps. Ken Chestek, Karlee Provenza and Trey Sherwood — managed to win despite a coordinated campaign of negative billboards and attack mailers from the county Republican Party and individual lawmakers associated with the Freedom Caucus.

Sherwood had the toughest race of the three Albany County Democrats. She represents a more rural, Republican area outside of Laramie than Provenza's and Chestek's in-town districts. Sherwood's opponent was Joe Giustozzi, who, like many Wyoming politicians in the past several years, probably couldn't have found Wyoming on a map until they started looking for a friendly place to run for office.

That includes Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-Casper), a self-described "political refugee from Illinois" who lost her seat in the primary to Julie Jarvis. Ward was one of the most vocal members of the Freedom Caucus , who specialized in failed bills that sought to criminalize librarians and others for "sexualizing children" with LGBTQ-themed books and the "What Is a Woman Act," an anti-transgender bill that would have defined people's gender by their biological sex at birth.

Giustozzi posted a video on his campaign website that said his family moved to Wyoming from Connecticut four years ago "to escape the high taxes, the high cost of living in general, and to escape the liberal mindset and the oppressive local and state government that permeates everything back East."

It's a good trend when carpetbaggers fail to convince voters that they've got just the right kind of "Wyoming values" to lead us when they honor our state with their presence. Whatever happened to the colorful cowboy political philosophy that we don't give a damn about how you did it back home?

Democrats stemmed the tide and gained a House seat, but the party can't be satisfied that 13 of its candidates lost to Republicans in other contests across the state. I know it's extremely difficult to recruit candidates in many counties, particularly those with a huge number of registered GOP voters. It's difficult to persuade someone to devote the time, energy and money to a campaign with little chance of success.

But it's also hard to believe voters in places that used to regularly elect Democratic candidates — like Albany, Laramie, Natrona and Sweetwater counties — don't have a single Democratic legislator. The state party set a record low in its number of candidates this year, literally handing Republicans the supermajorities they continue to enjoy.

I know that in Cheyenne, where I live, three Democratic women ran excellent, competitive races: Marguerite Herman in the Senate, and Sara Burlingame and Jen Solis, who sought House seats. They lost, respectively, to Republican Rep. Jared Olsen, who will take over Ellis' seat, Jacob Wasserburger and Gary Brown.

It's way past time to stop thinking that all one has to do to win a Wyoming election is have an "R" behind their name on the ballot. Wyoming has a proud history of quality Democratic officeholders, including former Govs. Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan and Dave Freudenthal.

But it's been more than 50 years since Wyoming last elected a Democrat, Teno Roncalio, to Congress. Most of today's voters don't know anything about him, or other respected leaders like Sens. Gale McGee and Joseph O'Mahoney.

It doesn't have to be that way. The Wyoming Democratic Party must make a concerted effort to bring back voters who switched to the Republican Party because there weren't any Democrats running in their legislative districts. There is no good reason why the party can't raise enough money to field a credible candidate with a viable shot at winning to run for the U.S. Senate or U.S. House or the five statewide elected offices.

The Wyoming Legislature now has eight Democrats — four in Albany County, three in Teton County and its newest member in Fremont County — who should be encouraged by their party to spread their wings and seek higher office.

Unlike the Freedom Caucus, we don't need to import them, either.