You can watch the full panel discussion on our YouTube.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, you can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
As candidates round the corner on the last stretch of campaigning before the primary election on Aug. 18, Republican hopefuls for governor described their vision for leading the state at a Wednesday forum.
Four candidates are vying for the Republican nomination this year as Gov. Mark Gordon serves the remainder of his second and final term leading the state. Candidates Sen. Eric Barlow and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder participated in Wednesday’s forum at Casper College. Col. Brent Bien and Curt Blake of Centennial chose not to attend.
Whoever wins the Republican nomination will face Democratic candidate Kenneth Casner of Elk Mountain and Rebecca Bextel, the Constitution Party’s candidate, in November’s general election.
Challenges
Born and raised here, Barlow and Degenfelder both touted their Wyoming roots in their opening statements.
“I’m a fourth-generation Campbell County ranch kid, a Marine Corps veteran, a veterinarian, a businessperson, and husband of 35 years to my lovely wife, Kelly,” Barlow said. “And we have two grown children who are making their way in Wyoming. We’re so proud of them.”
Barlow, who currently represents Senate District 23, has served in the Wyoming Legislature since 2013, including a term as speaker of the House. Degenfelder also has experience in state government, having been elected in 2022 to lead the Wyoming Department of Education.
“I’m a sixth-generation Wyoming ranch kid whose parents clawed their way into the middle class,” Degenfelder said. “[I’m] a University of Wyoming graduate who built a career in the coal and oil and gas industries, and as superintendent of public instruction have worked hard to reform education.”
Asked about the state’s biggest challenges, Degenfelder pointed to affordability.
“The availability to make ends meet in the state of Wyoming is paramount to our people here,” Degenfelder said. “And so the role of the governor is to create an environment where our private sector can thrive, where we can truly chip away at the cost of living, whether it be around housing or healthcare, or reducing the scope of state government to ensure that state government is working for the people.”
In his campaigning across the state the last 11 months, Barlow said he’s been able to “hear from the citizens of Wyoming about what’s on their mind.”
“Healthcare, water, public lands, education,” Barlow said. “And then do we have the communities — the thriving communities, where we have opportunities, not just for our elders and the quality of life they want, but for the next generations? And do we have the economy, the industries here that support the jobs that our youth need and want? All those things tie together. They tie together in a package that we have to work together for.”
Suicide rates and brain drain
Wyoming has consistently ranked as a state with one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Both candidates were asked how the governor’s office could take a leadership role in paving a new pathway to support residents in crisis.
“I wear two bracelets on my wrist — one for suicide 988 and one for dementia, because families in my community have been impacted by it, and they ask me as a legislator to continue to work on it and do something about it,” Barlow said.
The Legislature hasn’t “been able to fund the 988 hotline like we should,” Barlow said. “But absolutely, I’ll advocate for that so that we have resources and there’s a place for anybody in the state of Wyoming to reach out when they’re in crisis, and then we actually have to build the rest of the chain.”
That chain, Barlow added, ought to include better adolescent crisis intervention services, including inpatient care.
“We are sending our babies out of this state for that kind of care. We can do better than that. We must do better than that,” he said.
Degenfelder also pointed to younger residents in her answer.
“Our rates of suicide in the state of Wyoming are unacceptable. We have to protect life here in the state of Wyoming,” she said. “This is something that I care deeply about, and that I’ve delivered on as state superintendent of public instruction because we’re seeing it happening earlier and earlier.”
In her time in office, Degenfelder worked to develop a plan, known as Growing Resilience and Strength in Wyoming Students, to address the high rates of suicide among students in K-12 schools.
“We created the GRIT framework, which is all about ‘how do we have preventative care? How do we identify? How do we work with parents, and then we refer out and we get them with the care that we need?’” she said. “And the pilots that we executed during my time as state superintendent have been incredibly promising”
When it comes to young people, Wyoming also has one of the lowest rates of them returning to the state after college to work. Both candidates were asked what they would do as governor to address brain drain.
Degenfelder said the solution to that starts with affordability.
“If a young family cannot afford to buy a house or have medical care or deliver a baby in an OB/GYN desert across the state, we can’t expect them to stay here,” she said.
To reduce the cost of living, Degenfelder said, it comes down to “creating good, high-paying jobs based on the industries we’re really good at, and leaning into that value chain, and looking at how we can expand things like processing and manufacturing, and then it’s building a strong education system.”
Barlow said he’s had 18 “sit-downs with young people,” since he started campaigning 11 months ago, to “listen to what was on their mind.”
One moment, he said, that has stuck with him happened in Casper with high school seniors and some underclassmen.
“And the very last young lady said, ‘I don’t think Wyoming wants me here.’ That was heartbreaking,” Barlow said. “It’s about the dialogs we’re having. It’s about treating each other respectfully and [civilly] and it’s about what they see as opportunities.”
Barlow said those conversations have clarified the needs of the younger generations.
“They need a robust economy. They need thriving communities, and they need a government that stays out of the way when it’s important,” he said.
Industry
Wyoming’s energy sector employed 516 people in wind and solar jobs in 2025 compared to 9,000 in Utah and 17,000 in Colorado that same year, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report. Both candidates were asked if the state is missing an opportunity to attract well-paying jobs and the economic activity associated with those jobs.
Degenfelder said she’s “not interested in subsidizing industries that are competing with the very ones that keep our state running.”
“We have not leased new coal in over a decade. That’s a problem,” she said. “We have oil and gas reserves across the state of Wyoming. We have the nation’s largest reserves in things like trona, bentonite, uranium, rare earths. We’re at the top of the list, and so what we need to do is stop trying to move away from the industry that literally keeps this nation running, that keeps Wyoming running. We need to focus on what we’re good at.”
Barlow said energy demand looks remarkable for the future of Wyoming.
“Every electron matters,” Barlow said. “The source, we can have a discussion about the source,” he said, adding that he has “reservations about where we are in the renewable space because of federal policies, not because it doesn’t generate real energy, but because of federal policies that seem to vacillate between administrations.”
The two candidates were also asked what they thought of Wyoming’s part in the future of nuclear energy.
The Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium mine is “25 miles from my front steps,” Barlow said.
“We have an incredible resource here, but we mine it and ship it, and somebody else gets all the values, added values, that come from the rest of the processes,” he said.
Between nuclear fuel manufacturing planned for Campbell County and TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear power plant near Kemmerer, “the face of what uranium and the nuclear energy industry is in Wyoming,” is changing, Barlow said before making a caveat.
“Now let’s be clear: I’m not talking about taking someone else’s waste into Wyoming,” he said. “I’m talking about taking the raw product, building the fuels and building the equipment and the resources and the trained people to go with that industry in Wyoming.”
Degenfelder described Wyoming as having “exciting opportunities” in nuclear energy and offered a caveat similar to Barlow’s.
“Now, I want to be clear: We will not become a waste dumping site for this country when it comes to spent waste. We will not,” she said. “And so, we need leaders that are willing to hold the line there and make sure that protection is in place, and then move forward on the opportunities within this industry.”
Degenfelder cited her background in the minerals industry as a necessity in the governor’s office.
“We need to ensure that we have a governor that understands energy and is going to make sure that we are in the driver’s seat as it relates to waste storage,” she said.
The two candidates diverged on a question about rescission of the Clinton-era 2001 Roadless Rule currently underway with the help of Wyoming’s lone congresswoman. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who Degenfelder has campaigned alongside, wants to stop future administrations from reinstating a 25-year-old policy that prevents roadbuilding on 59 million acres of the national forest, including 3.3 million acres of federal land in Wyoming.
The candidates were asked if they supported the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to do away with the rule.
Barlow described the pendulum swing that happens between federal administrations as “a gong show” with “a lot of people making a lot of noise.”
“We’re actually not getting to the principal issues we have. We have to protect our public lands. We have to take care of them from abuse and misuse, etc. We can do that responsibly,” Barlow said.
“Wyoming having that role in that discussion, that’s what I believe the right approach is,” he said. “So it’s not about a rule or not a rule. It’s about whether Wyoming has a seat at the table for the resources that we are the stewards of on behalf of our citizens.”
Degenfelder said the roadless rule has made it more difficult for local decision-making to happen in Wyoming.
The conversation, Degenfelder said, “has to be about that access” to public lands, “not just that they exist, but actual access and taking care of those public lands.”
“The reality is, is that we need more decision making to be here in the state of Wyoming rather than offices in Washington D.C. because this is about making sure that timber is cleared off of those trails, that our outdoorsmen and our guides are not having to do that themselves, but actually maintaining and ensuring that that we have those protections and access for for Wyoming people” she said.
The primary election is Aug. 18. Early voting is underway.
For more information about candidates in Wyoming’s federal, state and legislative races, check out WyoFile’s 2026 Election Guide. For important dates and contact information for your county clerk, see Wyoming Public Media's primary election info page.
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