Ahead of the 2026 general election, Wyoming Public Radio and KHOL Jackson offered all candidates in competitive races for statewide and federal offices 20-minute interviews to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their positions. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Tamara Trujillo is the Constitution Party’s nominee running for Wyoming secretary of state. Her campaign website is www.facebook.com/TamaraTrujilloHD44. She spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards.
Click here to listen to a special episode of Open Spaces previewing the races for statewide and federal offices.
Melodie Edwards: To start, do you mind just saying your name and the title of the seat you're running for?
Tamara Trujillo: My name is Tamara Trujillo, and I'm running for secretary of state for the state of Wyoming.
ME: Why did you decide to run for secretary of state, and why did you decide to do it under the Constitution Party?
TT: I've always been interested in politics, and as you may not know, or some of the listeners might not know, I was a representative for House District 44. With that, I took the interest, really, in helping my community at that point. Then while I was in office, I realized Wyoming isn't that big of a state, and pretty much we're all one community at the end of the day.
Picking the Constitution Party, when I got involved in Wyoming politics, I really didn’t know what party I wanted to belong to. As I started to explore politics and the parties, I realized I aligned a lot more with the Republican Party. But as elections started getting more and more involved, a lot of the Democrats started coming into the Republican Party, mainly for primary voting. But with that became a lot of chaos. I really just want to help the people and not become stuck to a party. So then I started to reevaluate, what am I doing? What’s going on in Wyoming? And I just felt it was better for me to represent the people in not such a big political, chaotic thing that’s going on with the Republican Party now. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s a bunch of great people that are involved in that party, and I kind of miss it. But at the same time, the Constitution Party focuses more on my Christian values and my conservative values on [the] government’s role. I’m all about less regulation as much as possible, so that’s why I went with that party. I really just want to help the people more than I want to help the government. That's why I'm running.
ME: Can you talk a little bit about your experience and how that will help you to be a good candidate and fill this seat to the best of your ability?
TT: I don't have much experience in the political world. I'm not a politician. However, I've been an administrator in my private role, in my working, I've been an administrator. I've been part of contracts. I worked for a large oil company that's prominent in the state of Wyoming. I worked with them for 17 years, so I learned a lot about policy making, policy writing, improving processes, and I want to bring that. I saved multi-millions of dollars for this company and [wrote] processes that have streamlined the company as it grew.
My focus, even as a Representative, was to focus on upgrading the system, smooth-lining and being more cost efficient. If I could do that for a multi-billion dollar business, I think I can bring those attributes to the state and do that for the people. If the state can make more money and save more money on the back end, that's a better way to give people back their taxes.
The secretary of state role is really, I just have to follow the laws that are written. I don't have to make the laws. I just gotta follow them and have a good vote when it comes to SLIB [State Loan and Investment Board] and our investments and working with the governor and the treasurer, all those guys. I bring that talent to the table.
ME: Can you talk a little bit about what the secretary of state's role is when it comes to elections and ensuring Wyomingites that they're aware of their civic rights and their responsibilities?
TT: The election, to me, is one of the biggest things, because it's our U.S. citizen-given responsibility to be responsible with how we vote, and I believe that is one of the most important things to making sure that it is secure and available to all U.S., American, citizens.
Especially in the state of Wyoming, where we're a very rural state. Just ensuring that all our county clerks have the tools available for them to do the job that we require. I think getting that open communication with them and what they need. I want to upgrade everything to where it's just easier for everybody to be on the same page. I think Wyoming's small enough to make that happen.
ME: Your predecessor has worked closely with the federal government, including sharing voter registration data and running registrants through a national database to check for citizenship. Do you plan to continue that precedent?
TT: I plan to continue with the federal government as much as, or I should say, as least as possible. The states are their own sovereign. I don't even know how to say it. They're in charge of the elections.
However, in order for us to avoid fraud, it doesn't hurt to work with them for a little bit. I did hear that today the Supreme Court justice[s] did allow Pres. Trump to use Social Security information. There's already ways for them to get the information that they need, but I'm also not going to fight the federal government, if that makes any sense. I really don't know. It's a really hard thing, but I'm about voter integrity, so a little bit, I guess, 25%, 50%, but not 100%. They don't need to know everything.
ME: Here's the rapid fire section of the interview. You'll just answer very briefly with a couple words or a sentence or so to each of these questions. Do you support secure ballot drop boxes?
TT: No.
ME: Do you support mail-in ballots?
TT: Yes.
ME: Do you support voters being able to change their political party at any time?
TT: Ask me that one one more time.
ME: Do you support voters being able to change their political party at any time?
TT: That's just a hard one, because a voter should be able to vote however they want, but at the end of the day – yes, I do actually.
ME: Do you support absentee voting for anyone who wants it?
TT: Not for anyone who wants it, no.
ME: Do you support hand counting of ballots?
TT: Yes.
ME: That's the end of the rapid fire section. I'm just gonna ask a follow-up on that last one about hand counting of ballots. You said that, yes, you do support hand counting of ballots. Why do you support that one?
TT: I'm an auditor. At the end of the day, my brain works that way. I vote, and I don't like the way when I go and I vote, and I can't see what I vote for all the time, and it's just, I believe hand ballot, hand counting is always just another way to double-check the work. I had a calculator that I typed wrong numbers on each tape, but at the end of the tape, my totals were the same. It's always better to have that second look.
ME: Wyoming has a business-friendly system for anonymously setting up shop in Wyoming for $50 to $100 a pop. That's led to tens of thousands of new businesses registering here, often without actually stepping foot in Wyoming. What are the benefits and the problems with Wyoming's less strict rules about registering businesses in the state?
TT: The plus for it is bringing in revenue, I guess a little bit. We would take a little bit of that. The negative is the fraud that's available. I had this one incident where I had five companies, and they all use[d] the same P.O. Box. But that's how we can set them up now. When I want to get ahold of one of them, I don't even know how to get ahold of them, because they're using a P.O. Box. To me, that's just dangerous at the end of the day.
ME: Lawmakers have considered, but not passed, some bills in recent years that would require registered agents to share more detailed information about a business's owners. Would you push for legislation like that, or how do you think lawmakers or your office should address this issue?
TT: I believe that that's fine. I think that everybody should be transparent in anything. I don't understand why there would be any secrecy in anything that's happening, especially if they're applying for licenses in our state.
ME: Wyoming residents have sometimes found their addresses being used by a business that they don't have any connection to. What is the secretary of state's role in ensuring that that doesn't happen?
TT: I believe that that's an important role, because that's a big part of avoiding fraud. Again, that's with upgrading technology. We bring all these data centers into Wyoming, I'm sure we can upgrade Wyoming's infrastructure to avoid that.
ME: A lot of land in Wyoming is owned by LLCs. What's the relationship between private property, privacy, and also transparency and accountability for land stewardship?
TT: That's a hard one, because we're going through all of that right now with everything that's going on, especially Mike and me. That's really hard, because you should have your privacy, right? Because it is your land.
However, bringing LLCs into it really does affect the community that it's being brought into. I don't believe that government officials should be signing NDAs, and I think the community should have more votes in what happens in their community, especially with bringing in LLCs that are trying to be very quiet about their intentions.
ME: Your competitor has this notion that he has been using in his campaigning, in which he's talked about making the secretary of state's office boring again. Do you agree with that assessment of the need for that in the secretary of state's office in Wyoming? And if so, how would you go about that?
TT: Honestly, I think his assessment of making it boring again is his – is a crazy personal opinion. I honestly think it is a boring position. It's just the loud noise. People like to make it more than it is. I don't have any qualms with how the current secretary of state has run the office. I think he has great staff. The state of Wyoming has a lot of – I learned that as a representative – we have amazing people that work for the state and know their job. So, depending on them, really, if they want the office to be boring, then it'll be boring. But if we need to handle business, we'll be loud. It's really up to the people, what they want.
ME: What's your approach to addressing opposition or conflict when you encounter it?
TT: When I was a representative, I encountered conflict the whole entire time. But really, it's just trying to talk to somebody. What I noticed is a lot of the people that were pushing back at me didn't know my position, and then once I started talking to them, they're like, ‘Oh, okay. Now I get where you're coming from.’ But people right away have this opinion, because you vote on one thing one certain way, that they automatically assume that you're that person. Or if you talk to somebody in the hallway, you're right away associated to this person all the time, without giving you that fair conversation.
What I did is I focused on the people that actually make a difference and have value, and I made a point to become friends with them and talk to them and explain to them who I am and where I'm coming from, and things got a lot easier my second year as a representative. I'm hoping to have that open dialogue with everybody so they understand that I'm not coming in to destroy government, but to improve it like I have all my other companies that I've worked for.
ME: Can you give some examples of who your role models are for other politicians or other political figures that you aspire to serving like them?
TT: I'm gonna keep it local to Wyoming. In my experience in watching how government works, I really have to give a lot of credit to our treasurer, Curt Meier, because I watched him interact with everybody across the board in trying to get his job done, because he is our money guy. He's very knowledgeable, and I like the way he does business.
As we look into the House and the Senate, I'd like to look like Sen. [Lynn] Hutchins (R-Cheyenne). She talks to everybody, but she stands her ground when needed. In the House, oh my gosh, there's so many in there, but Rep. Rachel Rodriguez [Williams] (R-Cody) was very thoughtful in all her actions that she has done, and in all her fighting for the unborn. Also, [Rep.] Chip Neiman (R-Hulette). He was [a] very good speaker of the house, and he really did try to be fair with everybody. Then there's also one other representative, Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander). He took me under his wing a little bit. He was questioning, ‘Why do you think like that?’ And I liked that, because he didn't judge me on the way I was thinking. He asked me why, and then we worked together, and that was one of my biggest takeaways, was him.
ME: Well, thank you so much. We just have just a tiny bit of time left. Is there anything else that you feel like we didn't get to talk to that you would like to add? We have just a minute or so.
TT: No, not really. I just want the people of Wyoming to know that I may be part of the Constitution Party, I love my country, I love my state, but at the end of the day, I love my people, and I want Wyoming to flourish for them.
You can find more conversations with Wyoming’s candidates on our How do I vote? page.
