Rep. Tom Kelly (R-Sheridan) is part of a wave of new lawmakers who'll be heading to the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne soon for the legislative session on Jan. 14. He’s a professor and department chair at American Military University, and he joins a supermajority of Republicans in the state House, many of whom are newcomers, too. Their arrival is happening in tandem with the newly-ascendant Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which snatched a majority of House seats following the general election.
Though he’s a first-time politician, Kelly unsuccessfully ran to be Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction in 2022. His race in the primary election against Gail Symons and subsequent victory in House District 30 came after he was endorsed by the district’s former representative, Mark Jennings.
Kelly talked with Wyoming Public Radio’s state government reporter Chris Clements about the ins and outs of preparing to lead as a rookie policymaker.
Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Tom Kelly: Rep. Mark Jennings, who has been in the seat for a decade, and [who has] represented the district well, and [who] I became friends with over the years, was thinking of running for the Senate. He wanted somebody he said he could trust to take his place in House District 30. He asked me to run, even though I had emphatically stated that I'm not a politician, I'm not a public official – I'm a long haired biker, I'm an introvert. I'm not made for this. So considering people in my community, including my representative, had asked me to step up, I asked my family about it – I have adult children and younger children, too – and my wife and my family were very emphatic that this is where I belong, and this is what I should do.
My opponent, Gail Symons, then announced shortly after that [that she would] run against me. From there, it has been a very pleasant experience, and voters I've talked to have been incredibly supportive. The ones who even said they were not voting for me, the ones I disagreed with, we had great conversations, and we discussed things along the lines that despite the fact that my opponent's sign is in your yard, I'd still like to get to know you. People took well to that attitude.
[The] press has been surprisingly fair and even-handed with me, I have no complaints with any news organizations about being misrepresented or anything.
Chris Clements: I understand that there was recently a legislators’ training week. What has that been like for you?
TK: That is the nuts and bolts of how things work down in the Capitol building. They showed us where the rooms are, how we do things with security, the people in [the Legislative Service Office] and who we'd work with, where we meet in certain places. We got to meet with the governor, [do] parliamentary procedure, [see] how the House rules work. I'll be in the House, but we did [it] for the Senate, too. We did a mock session where we used the parliamentary procedures. It was really just the nuts and bolts of how things function down there.
CC: What committees have you been assigned to this session, and are you excited about any of them in particular?
TK: Yes, I had specifically asked leadership if it was okay to be on the [House] Education Committee because I'm a lifelong educator. I've been a public school teacher, college professor, university department head, so thankfully they put me on the Education Committee.
But the pleasant surprise was also being put on the [House] Judiciary Committee. My PhD is in government, American government, so I do have some background in that, but I don't have any background as an attorney. So that one causes a little more trepidation.
CC: In particular, do you have any concerns or worries for the upcoming session?
TK: My primary worry is how well my family functions when I'm out of town for a while. My youngest son does have Down syndrome, and leaving him, being out of town away from him, that's one of my primary concerns.
As a legislator, my biggest concern right now is how well I will perform, and how well I will represent the constituents and the people who put their faith in me.
CC: When you were doing these mock trials and just all these events before the session – obviously, you're a Republican representative. What's the atmosphere been like between members of the other party? Has everything just been more or less collegial?
TK: So far, everything appears to be functioning as one big family, where we'll maybe get some arguments over the dinner table, but we're still a family. That's kind of how it's presented. But sometimes my social perception can be off because I'm autistic, so I have to take things like that at face value. If everybody's smiling, I'll assume everyone's happy. So that can be a challenge for me, but obviously I've learned how to navigate the world as I am. My perception, you might find, might be a little bit different than others you talk to.
CC: You were talking to me earlier, before I was recording, about how you're from Colorado. Could you talk to me just a bit about what you were saying in terms of people, in your own words, misrepresenting the fact that you're from another state and now are a legislator in Wyoming?
TK: Ah, yes. I'm originally from Illinois, and Illinois was a sinking ship 20 years ago. I decided I could not raise my kids there. I have six children. We moved to Greeley, Colorado. Weld County is a conservative county, or was, when we moved there, [but] the political nature of Colorado changed drastically in a very short period. They're the first state to legalize marijuana, and then they instituted mail-in ballots, and the state just became a tidal wave of blue.
After that, the policies that were enacted were gun control, higher taxes, and ever-growing state intrusion into family life. It was all the things that made us leave Illinois: rising crime, rising taxes, and so we moved to Wyoming, because it was the Western culture very similar to what Colorado used to be of community, faith, family. [It’s] a state that is there to do the basics of public goods and have a functioning society without becoming an overbearing, over-taxing entity.
One of the things I noticed having moved to Wyoming, where I thought I was going to finally get to just lead a quiet life and take care of my kids – because Wyoming's culture is very much live and let live – was that I started to see some of the same political narratives I had heard in Illinois 20 years ago, that I heard in Colorado 10 years ago, and I started speaking out to people [and] saying, ‘I've seen this before.’
CC: I've already asked you in the past, and you've let me know that you don't intend to join the [Wyoming] Freedom Caucus. But how has that dynamic – the fact that they are going to control the levers of power in Cheyenne – been for you so far, or has it even been noticeable?
TK: Technically speaking, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus in the House is in the minority. There are more non-Freedom Caucus members and there are Freedom Caucus members. Now, what we typically see in the media is that they say, ‘Freedom Caucus-aligned,’ because there are people like me who were actually endorsed by the Freedom Caucus, even though I'm not a member. I told them I have no intention of joining.
I haven't noticed nearly as much division now that the election is over as I did during the campaign season, but that could very well change once we actually get into session, and maybe it's just the calm before the storm. But right now, I'm not seeing clear divisions between the Wyoming Caucus, Freedom Caucus, or even the Democrats for that matter.
