Governor candidates address Fremont County issues during Dubois debate

(Dubois, WY) – Republican primary candidates seeking election to the highest-ranking office in Wyoming answered multiple questions tied directly to Fremont County interests during a debate last month in Dubois.  

The event was hosted by the Fremont County GOP and the Wyoming GOP – both of which are currently led by local resident Ginger Bennett – and the moderators were local Republicans Mitch Benson and John Birbari, whose first question focused on an issue that could directly impact the way voting districts are drawn in Fremont County.

“The Supreme Court recently found that Louisiana engaged in unconstitutional racial gerrymandering when creating a new majority black congressional district,” Birbari said. “Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray notified the state, and Fremont County in particular, that County Commission District 1 and potentially House District 33, formed to encompass the Wind River Reservation, may violate this ruling. 

“What is your position on the US Supreme Court decision Louisiana v. Callais, and do you believe that Wyoming will need to address our legislative districts to address this decision?”

Candidate Megan Degenfelder of Cheyenne – currently Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction – said the topic “has to be discussed within the leadership in the state.”

“(We need) to be able to come together and determine where our boundaries are and make sure that those are clear,” she said. “And I think it’s the role of the governor to work with the legislature in order to do that.”

Candidate Eric Barlow of Gillette – currently a state senator – said the legislature is “obligated” to review Wyoming’s voting districts “in response to the Supreme Court” decision, but it will be up to Fremont County residents to determine whether they want to re-assess the way they currently elect their county commissioners.

“The local side – the county commission side – that’s a decision for you folks to make here,” Barlow said. 

Candidate Brent Bien of Cody – a retired Marine Corps Colonel – said he agreed with Barlow’s response.

“I do believe that the redistricting goes along with our state legislature,” Bien said. “But we’ve got to keep the communication going on here with the local levels to make sure that those interests are communicated up.”

Libraries

Another question Birbari posed to the candidates last month touched on the ongoing controversy surrounding the kinds of materials that should be available to children at Fremont County libraries. 

“A lot of discussion has been had about inappropriate books in libraries,” he said. “What do you intend to do to make sure age appropriate material is located in its appropriate places?”

The legislature has debated that issue “several times,” Barlow replied – and those kinds of deliberations usually result in “big government telling local communities and parents what their kids and children have access to and not access to.”

“I sure as hell don’t want young people having access to (pornography),” he said. “But I also think that parents and local governments can take that up at the local level and have those conversations. If they can’t, then it comes to the Wyoming Legislature, (and) they pass a statute.”

As governor, however, Barlow said he wouldn’t necessarily want to be in a position to exert “executive power over that personal of a thing.”

“That goes back to the mask mandates and some of those things – you know, tyranny from above,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. “(But if the) legislature passes a law, if that’s what’s appropriate … the governor is responsible for executing that law.”

Bien, by contrast, said the legislature should pass a law “to get these inappropriate materials out of the schools.”

“I think that should be something directed from the states, because it is completely unsatisfactory to have these kinds of things in our schools,” he said. 

Degenfelder expanded upon that statement, asserting that “it is unacceptable to have sexually explicit materials in taxpayer funded libraries, period – especially for our children.”

“It’s absurd that we’re even having to talk about this,” she said. 

Drawing on her experience as state superintendent, Degenfelder said she has been told “many times” in her career that those kinds of materials aren’t available in Wyoming libraries, so “(we) don’t need to do anything as a state.”

But during her time in Fremont County, she said she “found a book” at a school library that contained “cartoon pornography.”

“(That’s) unacceptable,” Degenfelder said. “And that is why we have to act.”

That’s also why she took steps to address the issue during her time as state superintendent, producing “guidance for school districts across the state to eliminate these materials” and testifying before the United States Congress about “the need for us to act – because let’s face it, (there) are school districts in this county where kids are single-digit proficiency on third-grade English Language Arts.”

“(There is) no time – just no threshold whatsoever – for these types of materials,” she said. 

Two tribes

Several questions during last month’s debate touched on the state’s relationship with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes.

For example, Benson asked the candidates whether the State of Wyoming has “any treaty obligations for those two tribes.”

In response, Barlow explained that the United States government has treaty obligations to both tribes – and because the U.S. Constitution is the “supreme law of the land,” then Wyoming must “follow whatever obligations (that) the United States has taken on.”

He also added that tribal members who live in Wyoming are also citizens of the state, so “we absolutely have an obligation to those folks.”

During his answer, Bien pointed to the “Treaty of 1868” as evidence that the State of Wyoming does have certain obligations to the tribes.

“I don’t know what all those are,” he added, pledging to “learn more about it.” “But I want to make sure … that we uphold (what) we’re supposed to do as the state to make sure that happens.”

Of course, “we want that reciprocated on both sides,” he said, adding that tribal members who live in the state “are Wyoming residents.”

“They’ve got Steamboat on the back of their truck,” Bien said. “So we want to make sure that they’re … being represented adequately.”

In her response to the question, Degenfelder expressed her “respect for the sovereign nation” and for the state’s “partnership with our tribes,” echoing both Barlow’s and Bien’s comments that “those are Wyoming citizens.”

Referring back to her time as state superintendent, Degenfelder also pointed out that she recently established a Native American Education Cabinet “to see how we can move the needle for our Native students” in Wyoming.

“That collaboration is critical, because these are people living in our communities,” she said. “They are a part of our communities, and so that relationship with the tribes is paramount and will be in my time in office.”

Turning to a more specific question about the state-tribal relationship, Birbari asked the candidates for their thoughts about the funding the state has allocated in the past to help remove feral horses from the Wind River Reservation.

“Do you agree (with) using taxpayer monies to remove feral horses from federal trust lands?” Birbari asked. “And should this be extended to other federal lands?”

Bien said he is not in favor of “taxpayer money getting used for that … particularly on federal trust lands.”

“I think there’s another way to actually control that through coordination with (the Bureau of Indian Affairs) with the state,” he said.

He also criticized the “environmental groups” that protest and file lawsuits “any time we go out and try to manage the population of horses” that are “way above (their) allowable management level … all the way across the state.”

“We’ve got to somehow control this population,” Bien said. “We’re going to have to start standing up and saying, ‘Hey, we’re not playing this game anymore. We’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of the state.’”

Degenfelder responded more generally, noting that she doesn’t “like the federal government telling us what to do ever, in any circumstance.”

“Wyoming has a lot of negotiating power, and it starts in the governor’s office,” she said. “(The feds) want things from us a lot of the time – but guess what? We want a lot of things from them, too. And they don’t get to have their cake and eat it too.”

Barlow focused his response on the fact that the feral horses in question “are not just staying on one ownership.”

“We are intermixed with these lands, (and) those horses … are not welcome guests on most private lands,” Barlow said. “So whether it’s in the southwest, or in this part of the state, or the northeast, those populations, if they can’t stay home, (we) have to deal with it. And I think it is appropriate for the state to be partners with the communities – and if it’s the tribes, with the tribes – to reduce the impacts of those feral animals.”

To watch the entire debate, click here.

The Republican primary race for governor also includes candidate Curt Blake of Centennial, who was not at the event. 

Democrat Kenneth R. Casner of Elk Mountain is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.