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Cheyenne Roundup 2025: Ep. 2 - How Wyoming's separate powers interplay

The Wyoming Capital building with a reddish filter over it and the words "Cheyenne Roundup Podcast, WyoFile & Wyoming Public Media."

Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded at 8 A.M. on Friday, Jan. 17. Bills might have moved since.

Maggie Mullen: This is the Cheyenne Roundup, a weekly look at Wyoming’s legislative session, from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile. I'm Maggie Mullen, WyoFile's state government and politics reporter, and with me is Chris Clements, Wyoming Public Radio's state government reporter.

Chris Clements: It's great to be here recording at the media room underneath the Capitol, Maggie, to talk through week one of the session.

Things kicked off on Tuesday and, already, state lawmakers’ priorities are starting to take shape. But lawmakers aren’t the only ones with ideas about how they want Wyoming to run – officials in the executive and judicial branches have priorities, too.

MM: They sure do, and that was really on display this week.

Mark Gordon: My friends, you have a solid, balanced and well-constructed supplemental budget to consider.

Kate Fox: Wyoming ranks 37th and 42nd in the nation for judicial pay. We need to keep attracting the best lawyers to these positions.

Chuck Gray: … pushing back against ESG, banning wokeism and radical transgender ideology in classrooms …

CC: So here’s a quick Civics 101 reminder. Wyoming has three branches of government: legislative, judicial and executive. There are five statewide executives: governor, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer and auditor. Today, we’re going to focus on three of those positions and the judiciary, and what they want from the Legislature.

MM: How about we start with the governor, Wyoming's chief executive. Each legislative session kicks off with a State of the State address from the governor, either on the first or second day. It’s an opportunity for the governor to set the tone and to make their priorities known to legislators. That’s what we saw on Wednesday from Gordon.

The day before, lawmakers convened, and one thing to really stand out from that was the overt references to Christianity. Gordon actually opened his State of the State acknowledging this

Gordon: This is a great day as we heard, and we should rejoice in it. I appreciate the seriousness and spirituality of yesterday's opening remarks from each of the chambers.

MM: Freedom Caucus member Rep. Daniel Singh (R-Cheyenne) even performed a hymn.

Audio clip of Singh performing “How Great Thou Art.”

CC: That caught my attention, too. A major element of American democracy is the separation between church and state. There’s always been a pledge of allegiance and prayer, but we’re seeing a lot more than that from lawmakers.

MM: As for policy priorities, Gordon largely focused on infrastructure. He cited three recent examples of need: the failing LaPrele Dam 20 miles west of Douglas, the collapse of Highway 22 over Teton Pass last June, as well as last summer’s historic wildfires.

He also touched on his requests for the supplemental budget. That included increasing Medicaid funding to obstetric providers and expanding the state’s coal litigation fund.

Plus, he noted the incoming federal administration as a bright spot for Wyoming’s energy industries, though he also said, “It will take time to un-ring the Biden bell.” But above all, Gordon’s speech made one thing very clear. His priorities for the legislative session, and his vision for the state’s future, don't really overlap with the stated aims of the Freedom Caucus.

CC: I think it’s worth mentioning that the Caucus is aiming to pass a whole passel of bills that Gordon vetoed in the past. Some of those resurrections include a property tax relief bill, a bill to ban all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in state government and a bill that would slap regulations on the only remaining clinic providing procedural abortions in Wyoming.

In general, the Caucus wants to keep government expansion to a minimum. That goal does seem to be in conflict with Gordon’s on some of those budget priorities you just mentioned, Maggie. If there is any overlap between the governor and the Caucus, it’s a mutual dislike of lingering Biden administration policies and strong support for President-elect Donald Trump.

MM: Let’s move to an office where there’s less tension with the Freedom Caucus: Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Chris, we’ve both been watching some of the election-related bills Gray has said are his priorities. This week, a couple of them sailed through committee, with minimal debate and no amendments. But [they] got some pushback from Democrats and non-Freedom Caucus Republicans on the floor.

CC: That’s right. One was a bill that would add a requirement for proof of state residency and U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and another would add a 30-day residency requirement before folks can vote. Both of those passed the House Corporations Committee and survived first readings in the House Committee of the Whole toward the end of the week. A few doors down, the Senate Transportation Committee passed a bill around the same time requiring non-citizens’ identification cards to say, “noncitizen.”

Gray has other priorities for what he and others describe as “election reform,” namely, banning drop boxes and allowing hand count audits of ballots.

MM: Critics of some of those election regulations say they’ll make it harder for people to vote or that they’re unnecessary.

CC: Gray has been working closely with the Freedom Caucus from the beginning and in the run-up to this session on these election measures.

MM: With Gray and the Freedom Caucus so tightly aligned, these bills are expected to easily pass in the House. Where things could get a bit more dicey is in the Senate. Same could be said for the governor’s desk.

Last year, Gray attempted to make some changes to voter registration but through the state’s rulemaking process. However, Gordon rejected those rules, citing a legal opinion from the Legislative Service Office that the rules went outside the authority of the secretary of state’s office.

I also want to mention the superintendent of public instruction, Megan Degenfelder. She’s also weighed in with her own legislative priorities.

CC: In a press release she sent out ahead of the session, she patted the Freedom Caucus on the back for bringing bills to prevent ESG investing [environment, social, governance], which Degenfelder says hurts the fossil fuel industry revenues that fund Wyoming's K-12 schools. She also applauded the group's continued efforts to block diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in education.

MM: Right, DEI and ESG have become a big focus for both Degenfelder and the Legislature.

CC: They seem fairly aligned with their policy priorities. She sums her 2025 priorities up as combatting what she calls "extreme ideologies" and "federal overreach." She wants to see bills expanding school choice, particularly with charter schools; expanding parental rights; banning cell phones in classrooms and expanding concealed carry of firearms in schools. Some school boards have already chosen to do that.

MM: Degenfelder, like all five of the state’s executives, serves on the Wyoming State Building Commission, which has already approved guns in state buildings. Degenfelder is a strong advocate for eliminating “gun-free zones in the Capitol and state-owned office buildings.” There’s still some Legislative hurdles to make that happen, so we’ll be watching for that, along with her other priorities.

CC: The superintendent of public instruction, the secretary of state and the governor are all part of the executive branch of government. But the judiciary also has its moment to present its priorities to the Legislature. Following Gordon's state of the state Wednesday, Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Kate Fox gave the State of the Judiciary.

She pointed to the judicial branch’s recent rollout of an e-filing system for district courts and another one coming soon for circuit courts. And she mentioned the need for more protection for Wyoming judges. To figure out what those protections should be, Fox said they’ll be looking at an incoming security audit of eleven of the state’s courts. She said it would likely lead to the judiciary asking the Legislature for more resources.

Kate Fox: This is an issue that we will keep coming back to you on, because threats to judges nationally and here in Wyoming are only increasing.

CC: One of the things Fox has talked about throughout her career is diverting people out of the courts, and into mental health and substance abuse care. A bill to enhance those efforts died, but lawmakers in support of the measure have been mulling ways they could bring it back, so that’s another one we’ll be watching for.

MM: This was Fox’s last State of the Judiciary. She turns 70 this summer, and is required by law to retire. It was a bittersweet moment for the chief justice.

Fox: It has been such a great honor for me to serve as the leader of the Wyoming judicial branch and the amazing people in our branch, and to work cooperatively with the members of the Legislature, the executive branch and to serve the state that I love dearly. Thank you for your support. I wish you well, godspeed and your important work as legislators. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you. [Applause]

CC: We talk a lot about the divisions in the Legislature, both new and old – and I would say we’re right to do that – but I think it’s equally interesting to see when people come together in polarizing times.

MM: Those dynamics are so interesting to observe. Chris, what are you keeping your eye on as the session ramps up?

CC: I’ve been surprised by how quickly a few of the gender-based social wedge bills, like the so-called What is a Woman Act and a House bill that would ban all DEI programs in state government, have traveled through the Legislature so far.

These are national ideas that’ve trickled down to Wyoming. Both bills passed [second] reading in the House Committee of the Whole the first week of the session. I’ll be looking to see how the Senate debates and votes on these pieces of legislation, considering the chamber is looked at as being the more moderate of the two.

MM: I’m also really eager to watch the Senate, especially once some of the Freedom Caucus’ priority bills make it over there. I’m not so certain the upper chamber is just going to lap up whatever the House feeds them.

I’m also curious to watch the supplemental budget bill. With this new Legislature came a new slate of Appropriations Committee members. They’re actually meeting as we record this, so we’ll have to play a little bit of catch up after this. But I’m curious what changes they might make to that budget bill.

CC: There's so much that’s still in play. As of Friday morning, 373 bills have, at the very least, been entered into the Wyoming Legislature’s system. Representatives in the House have until Feb. 3 to get any lingering bills introduced to the chamber. Senators have until Jan. 29. Gov. Gordon told the Wyoming press corps not long ago that he’d heard over 600 bill drafts are going to be submitted to the Legislative Service Office for consideration. That would be a record number during his administration if they all end up approved and assigned numbers.

MM: Thanks for listening to the Cheyenne Roundup, your weekly look at what lawmakers are up to during the 2025 legislative session from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile.

New episodes drop every Friday throughout the session. Editing and producing by Tennessee Watson, Kamila Kudelska, and Nicky Ouellet. Follow our ongoing legislative coverage at wyomingpublicmedia.org and WyoFile.com. And thanks again for listening.

Chris Clements is a state government reporter for Wyoming Public Media based in Laramie. He came to WPM from KSJD Radio in Cortez, Colorado, where he reported on Indigenous affairs, drought, and local politics in the Four Corners region. Before that, he graduated with a degree in English (Creative Writing) from Arizona State University. Chris's news stories have been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition and hourly newscasts, as well as on WBUR's Here & Now and National Native News.
Maggie Mullen cut her reporting teeth at Wyoming Public Radio, and spent over five years there as an audio reporter and host. During that time, she became a founding reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between public radio newsrooms across the region. Her work has appeared on NPR, Science Friday, Marketplace, National Native News and PBS NewsHour. Mullen was born and raised in Casper, and lives in Sheridan with her partner. She is most content in the company of their mutt, Moonee, either out for a walk on the prairie, or swimming in Wyoming’s frigid rivers and lakes.

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