Wyoming Dems Say Nothing Is Wrong With Platform But Will Target Rural Areas

Seating just eight delegates in the 93-member Wyoming Legislature and having weathered tough losses in the 2024 national elections, the Wyoming Democrats’ strategy is to plunge into rural communities and help people on the ground, multiple party officials told Cowboy State Daily on Sunday.

Volunteerism and service were the strategies Wyoming Democratic Party officials and elected leaders emphasized most during their interviews with the outlet Sunday, at the party’s officer elections meeting in Rock Springs.

“When we show that we can meet people’s needs and be a community of care and compassion, people will come back (to the party),” said Lindsey Hanlon, whom party leadership elected chair about 20 minutes before she spoke to Cowboy State Daily.  

That means showing up to help in wildland fires, helping the local food bank, working with pet shelters and other volunteer efforts, she added.

“Anywhere there’s a spot in your community that needs a helping hand, we want to be that helping hand,” said Hanlon.

Newly-elected state party Chair Lucas Fralik voiced the same mission. He said county parties are already “energized” toward volunteerism, and it’s time to mobilize in more Wyoming communities.

“It’s about showing up where people need us the most,” he said. “We (need to) talk more about what Democrats are doing for you today, not what we’re doing for you tomorrow.”

That also means being present and involved at local board meetings, he said.

‘Leadership’

Nationally, Republicans trounced Democrats in the 2024 national elections by winning the U.S. Senate and holding the U.S. House, while President Donald Trump recaptured the White House, winning both the electoral and popular votes.

The Democratic National Committee is also weathering controversy, after its Chair Ken Martin derided DNC Vice-Chair David Hogg’s plan to raise money for candidates challenging Democratic incumbents – escalating an ongoing feud between the pair.

Hot Springs County Democratic Party Chair Dale Horkey said the key to turning the party’s recent losses around is simple: “leadership.”

It’s not about tweaking the platform, Horkey said. It’s about galvanizing behind a leader who is “dynamic enough and out-front enough and in-your-face enough, if necessary, to say ‘OK, we are Democrats, and we are here for good. We are here to do good things.”

It’s a tricky question, who will be the next face of the Democratic party, after former President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection campaign mid-race, and his Vice President lost both the electoral and popular votes to Trump.

Other names such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, all surface in news stories about potential 2028 presidential-race contenders for the blue party.

State Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, didn’t advocate for a specific national-level figurehead, but said he hopes the party can unite behind someone from a rural state.

The divide between urban and rural populations that is also repelling Democrats and Republicans from one another is “unfortunate,” he added.

Within the past two years, the party has revived four previously "dark," counties, or counties that didn't have chaired county parties. Those are Campbell, Goshen, Sublette, and Weston.

Lincoln and Niobrara counties remain dark, the party's spokeswoman told Cowboy State Daily.

Not Overhauling These Beliefs

Of the Democratic officials Cowboy State Daily interviewed Sunday, they overwhelmingly denied the party platform needs to change. They said or indicated: they don’t seek a change in the party’s core beliefs, but hope, rather, to attract people to those with a servant-hearted, grassroots movement. 

Yin, however, tempered that point: he said it is time to “listen” to Wyomingites on party-platform and other issues. Especially with near-constant strife and division in the state’s supermajority Republican Party, which is split between two factions.  

Yin told the outlet – and later the party leaders – that he wants to hold a series of town halls doubling as “listening sessions” throughout the state’s towns.

“I want to hear what the problems are – and that’s how we can focus our messaging,” said Yin, who also said he’s noticed people in Wyoming growing frustrated with the actions of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus – a group of Republicans keen on legislating social issues, pursuing school choice and enacting numerous voting requirements and reforms.

“They’ve made moves that have made people unhappy,” said Yin.

Whether that opens an access point for hopeful Democratic candidates to the Wyoming Legislature, Yin declined to say. He reiterated: “It’ll start with listening first.”

Democrats already have the right “values” in place, he added.

Fremont County Democratic Party Chair Julie Twist’s strategy is picking up independents.

Fremont County’s cultural environments are diverse: containing the largely working-class community of Riverton, the poverty-ridden Wind River Indian Reservation and the more progressive subcultures within Lander.

Twist senses an opportunity to attract “like-minded people” who aren’t necessarily Democrats, she said.

Trump’s Got This One, Says Rep.

State Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, told Cowboy State Daily that the Trump administration could drive people back to the Democratic party.

Many of the president’s federal spending cuts have been contested, and many have been blocked in court.

Presenting before the legislative Judiciary Committee last month, the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security voiced fear over a potential FEMA cut, saying it hadn’t seen its usual program grants arrive – and Wyoming could be in a bad position when its next round of wildfires or disasters hit.

The National Weather Service Office in Cheyenne also suffered a recent staff cut, raising concerns about emergency weather alerts and monitoring.

“We’re learning through all the activities (the Department of Governmental Efficiency) DOGE is engaged in, how important federal government is,” said Chestek. “And people who have been trained to hate the federal government are realizing that the federal government does some good stuff.”

Starts Here, Could End There

Kyle “El” Cameron, interim labor caucus chair for the party, agreed with her fellow Democrats’ start-small, grassroots strategies. She said county parties should field qualified candidates for every local race, to give people a choice.

But she has a big end in mind: abolish the electoral college.

The needed regrouping effort is “much bigger than Wyoming.”

“We can’t keep going the way we’re going,” said Cameron. “The U.S. Constitution, the way it’s written; the electoral college, the way it’s designed… was designed to elect someone like Donald Trump.”

Those changes would require a constitutional convention, Cameron noted.

“Now I’m going to be called a radical,” she said with a laugh. “But yes, I think we need a constitutional convention – and we need to rework the Constitution. Because we’ve got Donald Trump acting as a president – and he’s really a tyrant.”

Emphasizing dissatisfaction against Trump is Alec Beccaria’s strategy of choice, he indicated in his own interview.

Beccaria is a Washakie County Democrat who hopes to become a state committeeman soon, he said.

“The best thing the party could do, from my limited point of view, would be helping people organize protests. Getting people out there,” said Beccaria. “(Against) the Trump regime. The creeping authoritarianism that is coming.”

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.