In July 2025, there were 31,904 registered Democratic voters in Wyoming compared to 212,201 registered Republicans.
In the state Legislature, Democrats currently hold eight seats out of 93 between the House and Senate.
Lately, Democratic lawmakers have been fanning out across the state to hold town halls in communities like Rock Springs and Lander that are outside their own legislative districts. In the coming weeks, Democrats will likely also visit Sheridan, as well as Park and Big Horn counties.
Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) is one such Democratic legislator.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Chris Clements spoke with Yin about the reasoning behind the move and the response so far.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Chris Clements: Democratic legislators like yourself have been holding town halls in Republican districts, places like Cheyenne and Casper. What stands out to you about what people have been telling you?
Mike Yin: A lot of people still believe in the same things that they've always believed in for what they want their government to do. They want it to stay out of their lives, but they also want to make sure that they have good paying jobs and the ability to have kids that can grow up and stay in Wyoming.
CC: Talk to me about the philosophy behind doing these events and how they're structured. Are folks sitting in chairs facing the stage?
MY: Our events are not like most normal town halls. They're a workshop style where the real goal is to center the community in a discussion of, ‘What are the things that you need us to work on? What are the things that keep you up at night? Where do you want to see the future of Wyoming go?’ Those sorts of things. I think that there are quite a few people in Wyoming who feel like they haven't been heard, and so rather than have them be talked to, we wanted to make sure that they could talk to us.
CC: Is this a novel approach to do these town halls in places outside your own districts? In your tenure in the Legislature, have you folks done this before?
MY: As far as I know, the Democrats have not done this. I can't tell you what everyone does, but I have seen [Wyoming] Freedom Caucus members hold some town halls, but it's not like ours. I think that it is something that more people should do, because as representatives, we don't represent just our district.
CC: Some people have pointed out that it seems like the national Democratic Party has been struggling to mount a consistent response to the Trump administration's flurry of big policy changes. In Wyoming, the state Freedom Caucus [and its endorsees] dominate the lower chamber [after the last general election]. Do you feel there's a parallel between developing a response to the caucus and the national Democratic Party's response to the White House, and are these town halls about developing that response?
MY: I try to focus as much as possible on what can be accomplished in the state Legislature, because I think a lot of things that happen in [Washington] D.C. are super broken, and I don't want to repeat what happens in D.C.
CC: Are there any strategies or thoughts that you have for implementing what people would like to see happen, given that you have eight seats out of 93 in the Legislature?
MY: A lot of it is really just figuring out what are the issues that we need to focus on. So, for example, in our [Joint] Corporations Committee, we have been focusing on elections for the past four years. You know what I don't hear at any of these listening sessions? None of the people that have come to a listening session has said that they want us to ban ballot drop boxes.
I think first of all, it's trying to figure out, ‘Okay, what are the issues that everyone wants to work on?’ When I can say, ‘I've been to every single community, and all of them have said that they wanted strong jobs in their communities, they wanted young people to stick around in their communities, they wanted their schools to be strong in their communities’ – I think being able to come back with that information will allow us to actually focus on, ‘How do we solve those problems,’ once we know these are the problems that people want to have solved.
CC: In recent years, fewer and fewer Wyomingites are choosing to be Democrats. From July 2020 to July 2025, the Wyoming Democratic Party lost about 10,000 registered voters. As minority floor leader in the Legislature, how do those numbers influence your lawmaking strategy?
MY: Party registration is a bad metric, because our party system is set up to be, ‘Register for the party that you think that you can make the most difference in a primary election.’ I think that's a false way to actually reflect the values of what people want out of their society. Like I said, I think it's a terrible system where we have to reflect national party politics regardless.
My focus is, regardless of who's in what party, whether you're an independent, you're a Republican, you're a registered Libertarian, Democrat, whatever: How do we solve the problems in your community? We can't do that without first identifying what are the issues in your community that you want worked on.
CC: But with only eight members in the Legislature, what does that say about voters' appetite for the policies you and your Democratic colleagues are pushing?
MY: Like I said, I think it's more of a reflection of both the primary system we have, as well as the reflection that we have to match national party politics. I think that there's an appetite for the policies [of the Democratic Party] because I hear them when I go to every community that we're going to. I also want to make sure that as Democrats in our caucus, we're going to be listening to what people on the ground want to work on, regardless of what party they are.
I kind of want to throw all that party stuff out the window if we really could. Unfortunately, it's a system that we live in, but I think that I'm trying to cross those barriers as much as possible.
CC: To be considered a major political party in Wyoming, your candidates for either governor or secretary of state or U.S. House representative need to get at least 10% of the total votes cast in the most recent general election. Are you and the party worried that you may dip below that threshold?
MY: I'm not worried about that at all. Not something that I focus on.
CC: Do you have any concerns heading into the [legislative] budget session about what people are starting to say to you about what may happen to the state budget?
MY: I have a lot of concerns. I think that we have a lot of problems that haven't even been tackled in these interim committees. Like I said, we're tackling problems that no one has told me that they thought were problems in our community meetings. We have a lot of federal funding that's going to disappear not only to our state budget, but to local county budgets and municipal budgets. I think that we're going to be on track to not solving the problems that we're hearing around the state, but actually making those problems worse.
CC: What's one thing that folks have told you at these town halls that has been surprising to you, or that maybe you didn't see coming?
MY: It's been interesting that we've heard a couple of grumblings in different communities over different sorts of things. The nuclear topic has come up. I think that makes sense, especially for Casper. Data centers have come up. People are worried about water usage. I think I was a little surprised at how much people are paying attention to water. But it is one of our most precious resources, and we've been in an extended drought for a long, long time. So, trying to figure out how we solve those water issues, especially if we bring in new businesses and you want to make sure they are good on their water usage.
But I think the big ones have all been things that have gotten worse over time: our housing problem, making sure that we have good healthcare coverage across the state, making sure that we have strong jobs across the state. We keep seeing young people leave in bigger and bigger droves every year.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
