Lloyd Larsen is a Lander state representative. He aligns with more moderate Republicans. Larsen faced Tina Clifford in the primaries and won by over 200 votes. He’s held House District Seat 54 since 2013. Wyoming Public Radio’s News Director Kamila Kudelska asked Larsen what was surprising to him about the primary results.
Editor’s Note: This story was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Lloyd Larsen: I thought that there were a number of longstanding legislators who have some real institutional knowledge and had really been serving their communities well that lost. I think of Amber Oakley, Tom Walters, Albert Sommers in the senate side that I really was quite surprised about.
I think the biggest question in my mind is that with the turnover, particularly in the House, we will have a majority of the legislators in office who have very little experience in the legislative process and in the committee process. That could present some challenges. That may slow down the ability to get some comprehensive legislation through the process. Some of that process is quite detailed, and it really is important for legislators to have some understanding of just the structure of bills and how bills are being interpreted by agencies and by our LSO [Legislative Service Office] staff. That impacts the amendments that perhaps legislators try to bring to amend the bill if they're not familiar with the existing statute that the bill is addressing.
All of that set aside, what you may have to do is [like] when you're teaching your child how to drive, you leave the truck in first gear and cut down the road at a speed that they can handle before you head out onto the highway. It might be worthy of this legislative session to step back off the throttle a little bit. Not to get the cart in front of the horse, so to speak, so that we still do a good job of crafting and passing meaningful legislation.
Kamila Kudelska: The Freedom Caucus has gained a bunch of seats. How do you envision working with all the different parties, the Democrats, Independents and Freedom Caucus to get things done during the next session?
LL: As best I can. And I don't say that frivolously. People elect you to go down and represent them and not to go down and impede the process. So, my job is to go down there and try to continue moving the state of Wyoming forward. That doesn't matter if the Democrats are 100 percent in control and I'm the only Republican there, or if the Freedom Caucus is in control, or if the traditional Republican, conservative Republican Party is more in control, we still have to work with each other to try and get things accomplished. That's our mandate. That's what people expect us to do. It's not about Lloyd, right?
KK: And are there any particular areas that you're hoping to focus on in the next legislative session?
LL: Well, in this interim committee, there's several things that have taken place that were passed on. A lot of the work from the Mental Health Task Force, there's some bills that the task force has moved on to [the] Judiciary [Committee] and to [the] Labor and Health [Committee].
The Appropriations Committee has taken on two pretty significant lifts. One with gaming, how our gambling statutes look and giving some definition there. We're hearing from the public that our gaming is expanding more broadly and more extensively than perhaps the citizens of the state would like. So we're trying to get a bill for that.
KK: What do you think the results for the primary tell you about how Wyomingites are feeling?
LL: I don't know. I think that's just total speculation.
KK: Is there anything else that you want to add?
LL: Well, I would say it was the most unusual primary I've been involved in. My race wasn't the closest primary race I've ever had. In fact, I've had two others that were closer. But it was certainly the nastiest.
KK: How so?
LL: Just with all the outside negative mailers that were coming in with inaccurate information that I think had a fairly significant influence.
KK: Have you ever, in your time, encountered something like that before?
LL: No.
