With less than two weeks until the polls close on Nov. 5, we’re taking a look at the competitive races that will determine the balance of power in Wyoming’s state House.
Wyoming Public Radio’s statehouse reporter Chris Clements, tribal reporter Hannah Habermann, and Albany County reporter Jeff Victor joined News Director Kamila Kudelska on this episode of Road to Cheyenne.
Kamila Kudelska: Let’s start with a race that will decide whether there’s Indigenous representation in the state Legislature. Hannah, this the race for House District 33.
Hannah Habermann: Democrat Ivan Posey is challenging current Republican incumbent Sarah Penn. It’s an interesting district, representing a big chunk of the Wind River Reservation and non-reservation land too. Posey is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, and if he doesn’t win, there will be no Native state lawmakers next year.
KK: That’s because Navajo Sen. Affie Ellis was the only Indigenous lawmaker, but she’s retiring this year. So tell me a little more about Penn and Posey.
HH: Penn’s endorsed by the Freedom Caucus. She’s a nurse practitioner and has lived in Fort Washakie for the last 10 years. In 2022, she unseated Andi Clifford, who’s Northern Arapaho and a Democrat. Penn beat her by 55 to 44 percent.
KK: Just for clarification, Andi Clifford is now known as Andi LeBeau. And Posey?
HH: Posey was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation. He’s served in the U.S. Army and on the Eastern Shoshone Business Council. Now, he’s the tribal education coordinator at Central Wyoming College.
KK: Where do they stand on policy?
HH: They both participated in a League of Women Voters of Fremont County forum earlier this month, recorded by County10. One big difference was funding for early childhood education.
Sarah Penn: Kids at that age need to be home. I don’t support sending our children off – unless it’s a parent’s choice – but not funded by taxpayers at the young ages of 2, 3, 4.
Ivan Posey: It does have a place in our society. The idea is the younger we start them in education, the end result is to keep them in the state.
HH: Both candidates said they were personally “pro-life” but disagreed on the role of the government in reproductive health.
IP: I believe that it’s still a woman’s choice, and the federal government or state government should have no role in telling that woman what to do.
SP: Life is life and it should be protected from conception until natural death.
KK: Any other big takeaways?
HH: Posey emphasized more education for both Native and non-Native people about one another, while Penn advocated to stop what she called “the creep” of government and audit state agencies to cut back on budgets.
KK: Thanks, Hannah. So switching gears – Chris, you’ve been looking into another race that’ll help decide who controls the Legislature this January.
Chris Clements: Yeah, I’ve been watching House District 4, which includes Platte County and northwest Laramie County.
KK: Who are the people to know in that race?
CC: That’d be Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) and his Democratic challenger, Charles Randolph.
KK: Let’s start with Haroldson. He’s the incumbent.
CC: Right, and he’s a member of the Freedom Caucus. He was actually vice chair of the caucus until not long ago. This race will help see if the caucus gains a majority in the House.
In the last session, Haroldson sponsored a bill that would’ve removed all state-run gun-free zones, but it ended up getting vetoed. He was also focused on finding funds to fix an ailing water tank in Wheatland.
KK: His district has favored Republicans pretty reliably, yeah?
CC: His district has voted for the GOP in every election since at least 1977. I actually spoke with Haroldson this week, and he told me he’s betting on being reelected.
Jeremy Haroldson: The position of Speaker Pro Tempore is something that I'm definitely looking at being a part of and helping serve my state in that way.
CC: He’s so sure he’s going to win, he talked to me about what he plans to do next session. That included a bill that would give county clerks the option to do hand count audits of ballots cast in elections. Currently, tabulator machines do that audit. I asked him if he was concerned that doing those audits might delay getting results back after Election Day or be inaccurate.
JH: My thought would be to have a tabulator give us our results, and then a hand count quantify those results.
KK: That’ll be a bill to watch. Maybe put it on your to-do list, Chris?
CC: That list is growing longer by the day. One last thing on Haroldson: In terms of how big the Freedom Caucus’s majority will be, Haroldson didn’t give me a firm number, but he did say that it likely won’t be the coveted two-thirds that would make their bills veto proof.
KK: Even though he’s confident he’s going to win, Haroldson does have a Democratic opponent, Charles Randolph.
CC: Randolph is a retired railroad worker living between Chugwater and Wheatland. He’s been involved in Democratic Party politics in one way or another for years. He told me if he gets voted into office, his big priority will be to push the development of rare earth minerals, specifically in Albany County.
KK: Why is he running?
CC: He views Haroldson and the Freedom Caucus as too extreme for Wyoming. By way of an example, he mentioned that they backed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors this past session.
Charles Randolph: They took away the rights for parents to decide how their children can or cannot get medical treatment for their gender. And to me, that’s wrong.
CC: He said he doesn’t appreciate the way they tend to vote together on bills, including Haroldson.
CR: He's going to be out there taking phone calls, voting for this vote, not voting for that, because he's told to do that.
KK: Is that accurate?
CC: There may be some truth to that. The former chair of the caucus told me that new members are only admitted after they have a proven voting record that supports the caucus agenda. So uniformity is sort of part of the entry fee.
KK: Thanks, Chris. And Jeff, you’ve been watching Albany County.
Jeff Victor: There are four House races I'm watching, some more competitive than others.
House District 13 includes University of Wyoming student housing and is a pretty safe Democratic seat. The incumbent, a law professor named Ken Chestek, does however face a challenge from Republican Shane Swett.
At the other extreme is House District 46, which is a pretty safe Republican seat. In the last election, Ocean Andrew won with nearly 70 percent of the vote. And this year, he is technically being challenged by a Democrat, but that Democrat suspended his campaign, saying it was just too much to balance with his full-time job.
KK: Andrew is a member of the Freedom Caucus, right?
JV: That’s right, so if he wins, which looks likely, the Freedom Caucus is one step closer to having a majority in the House.
KK: So, if I’m following along, that sounds like one pretty safe seat for Republicans and one pretty safe seat for Democrats. What about the other two House races?
JV: The other two are a bit more hotly contested. House 14 and House 45 are more evenly divided between Republican and Democratic voters.
KK: Let’s start with House District 14.
JV: So HD 14 covers most of Albany County north of Laramie and it also includes some neighborhoods within the city. But it’s largely rural and leans Republican. Yet it’s represented by a Democrat, Trey Sherwood, who is now seeking a third term.
KK: How did that happen?
JV: Sherwood is a solid vote for her party on abortion rights and against anti-LGBTQ legislation. But she’s also sold herself as something of a champion for rural interests. For example, during the last session, Sherwood got funding for a one-room schoolhouse in her district. The ranchers in that area had been fighting tooth and nail for that school and Sherwood helped them get it.
So a lot of these ranchers view Sherwood as someone who will go to bat for them despite being a Democrat. There are even campaign signs up around the district that say “Republicans for Sherwood.” Ranchers in Garrett even made Sherwood the grand marshal of their July 4th parade.
KK: That’s fascinating. You always hear that the country is so polarized and Republicans and Democrats can’t work together anymore. But this kind of refutes that.
JV: I’d say it’s definitely an example of all politics being local in some way. However, the election is still competitive. There’s a Republican challenger, Joe Giustozzi.
KK: What’s his deal?
JV: Giustozzi moved to Wyoming four years ago. He’s mostly avoided interviews and forums. His campaign website doesn’t go too much into the weeds on policy, except that he agrees with one specific free market economist who argues states like Wyoming should limit taxes and cut spending.
KK: Did you say he moved here four years ago?
JV: That’s right. But he’s actually not the most recent transplant. That distinction goes to another candidate, Paul Crouch, who moved to Wyoming just last year.
He’s running in House 45 and is trying to unseat the incumbent Democrat, Karlee Provenza.
KK: How do those candidates differ?
JV: Provenza is a strong advocate for criminal justice reform, police accountability, rental tenant protections and Medicaid expansion. She’s known in Laramie as a community organizer, who’s worked on issues like police oversight and housing.
Crouch, on the other hand, is very conservative. He told me supports the various anti-transgender bills passed by the current Legislature, wants to see more public money spent on private schools through voucher programs, and he believes most abortion should be illegal. So I’ll definitely be watching this race on election night.
KK: Thanks Jeff. And we’re going to end with something every Wyomingite will see on their ballot. There’s a constitutional amendment regarding property taxes. Chris, can you explain what this is?
CC: Yeah. It’s an incredibly complicated proposal. Depending on the outcome, it could change part of the Wyoming Constitution.
If approved, it would create a separate rate of taxation for all residential property, like multi-family, single family property. Within that, it would create a subclass specifically for owner-occupied primary residences, and tax those folks differently.
The Legislature tried and failed to pass a law last session that would’ve given tax cuts for single-family homes, but Gov. Mark Gordon said it violated the state Constitution, which only has three different classes for property taxes right now. Those are mineral products, industrial properties and basically everything else. When you consider that along with our surging property tax rate, there’s clearly an appetite for figuring out a reduction in the tax burden.
KK: Why is this on the ballot now?
CC: This amendment started out as a Senate resolution in 2023. At the time, some legislators said they were worried this change to the Constitution wouldn’t really provide property tax relief, just create a new class that could be taxed more or less depending on who’s in charge in Cheyenne.
But the bill eventually passed, and now it needs more than half of Wyoming voters to back it before it becomes law.
KK: Okay, and now for the real question: How will this property tax change impact me and my home specifically?
CC: If the amendment passes and the Legislature decides afterward to lower property taxes under this new subclass, it could provide you with some relief. But the amendment doesn’t answer a bunch of questions that could prove to be important down the road. For instance, if you run a business out of your home, Kamila, it seems unclear how your property would be taxed, then.
KK: Got it. So I shouldn’t open up Kama Korner’s Bagel Shop from my house.
CC: Stick to a storefront location for right now, until we get some of these tax questions answered.
KK: Alright, I’ll hold off altogether. Well, thank you so much to all of you! That’s a wrap for this episode of The Road to Cheyenne. We’ll be back Nov. 1, where we’ll talk about election security and more to prepare you for the general election on Nov. 5.
