One of those Senators was Wyoming's own Cynthia Lummis.
Really makes a fellow proud, um, or well. . .
Jane Banner: Shouldn't we wait for back up?Ben: This isn't the land of waiting for back up. This is the land of you're on your own.
In the film Wind River, set on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Tribal policeman Ben and FBI agent Jane Banner are confronted with gunfire while investigating a crime and have the exchange noted above.
Wyomingites love that quote, and there's a lot to it.*
Not only is there a lot to it, its very much the case regarding politics in this state. Our Congressional delegation doesn't support or represent us on many of the existential matters at play in the state. Not one darned bit.
And they're not going to. Just as in Wind River the two policemen, and an Animal Damage officer, were under assault by those that they were going to have to take on, on their own, so are the residents of this state.
The other day I saw a lifelong member of Wyoming's Republican Party, who once held positions within it, decried. Wyoming's Congressional Representation as "bought and paid for". This followed, by a period of a couple of years, a similar claim by a former significant Wyoming politicians that I somewhat know. Another person I know describe all three of Wyoming's Congressional delegation as "ass kissing sycophants".
There's something to all of that.
The vast bulk of their large campaign war chests comes from out of state money. Compared to it, the money from Wyomingites doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket. It's more like a drop in a 55 gallon barrel. Wyoming public media, in a news story on the topic, reported:
JU: OpenSecrets reported that Rep. Harriet Hageman received $15,000 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sen. John Barrasso has received over $70,000 from a private equity firm based in New York and California [from 2019 to 2024]. And Sen. Cynthia Lummis received over $100,000 from the Club for Growth, a conservative PAC [from 2019 to 2024]. In the face of more powerful organizations like those, how do individual or local donors in Wyoming make their voice more impactful? Or their donation more impactful?
Some group calling itself the Americans for Prosperity have been running non stop adds on social media thanking John Barrasso for his role in the Big Ugly.
Who are these people and organizations? Wyomingites?
Not hardly. Wikipedia says of them:
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch.[6] As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.
Club for Growth is a radical right wing economic outfit as well.
American Israel Public Affairs Committee: What does have to do with the average Wyomingite?
Not freaking much.
In a couple of place around town, there are billboard featuring all three of our Congress people with the Tetons in the background thanking all three for standing with "American Energy", by which they no doubt mean petroleum and coal, not wind, solar and nuclear (as we've recently learned locally).
The bigger problem is that the Congressional delegation flat out ignores the views of Wyomingites on some major issues, public lands being one. Wyomingites are overwhelmingly opposed to the Federal lands going to the states, and are opposed to public lands being sold. That well known fact hasn't done anything to keep our Congressional delegation from supporting those things, and it's done nothing whatsoever to keep the Wyoming GOP from backing land transfers.
Dr. John Barrasso, who after all is a East Coaster and looks like one, has his head so far up Trump's ass on a daily basis that he can examine Trump's tonsils from the backside. He has no use for Wyoming anymore. My guess is that he's in his last term as he knows that he's not going to be the Senate Majority Leader so being a fascist flunky will be his career achievement, and he's okay with that.
Who knows what's up with Lummis. She's always been a Cheshire cat in the first place, with a sort of snarky smile. She goes her own way, and that way isn't yours.
Harriet Hageman is the most honest of the bunch. Sure, she's stuck in the Powder River Campaign, but her views, while not the same as most of hours, re honestly and openly held.
Chuck Gray? Gray is just using Wyoming, that's about it. And his politics bend with the wind. He's a far right winger Greenpeacer if you can make sense of that, and he's hoping you can't and will yell at you until you are distracted.
Right now, the Wyoming GOP is the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is packed with people who are not from Wyoming, and how have brought their dumbass ideas with them and want to impose them on Wyoming.
They're succeeding in doing so. There's really no saving the GOP in the state. The old GOP, which was uniquely Wyoming in view, is dead, taking the path of the old Wyoming Democratic Party, which did as well, and which died first.
In its place we have the Dixiecrats and those whose one and only value is their pocket books.
They need to go.
But it would appear unlikely that they can be dislodged from the current GOP, put on plane, and shipped back to the their home states, like they should be.
The only two things the two failed parties agree on is that you should never vote for a third party. That's how we got into this mess.
Suffice it to say, we're not being served well.
What would a party that actually reflected Wyoming's values look like?
Well, of course, in stating something like that, I'm inevitably going to post what a party that reflected my values, mostly, would look like.
Tone it down, senator. There is no fire in this theater.: Surely Sen. Lummis, an attorney who took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, one whose congressional ancestors crafted the language she now seeks to unwind, understands the implications of greenlighting limitations of speech.
I didn't get a chance to read this essay until today.
It's excellent.
Cynthia Lummis has taken an oath to obey the Constitution more than once. At least one time for every time she's been elected to office, and upon becoming a member of the State Bar. She's violating that oath with her statements that following the assassination of Charlie Kirk 1st Amendment protections must be reduced.
And keep this in mind, MAGA members. If you support this, reducing rights under the 2nd Amendment is the obvious next step. If we're in some sort of crisis justifying limiting free speech, we're certainly in one justifying restricting firearms.
Lummis, by her statements, is no longer fit to be a U.S. Senator or a member of the Wyoming State Bar. She should resign from both. And if she doesn't resign as Senator, and of course she will not, Wyoming's voters ought to put her into retirement the next time she's up for reelection, by which time, we might note, political winds will have almost certainly changed.
Kimmel’s suspension prompts free-speech Republicans to reconsider their boundaries
Pretty much what those supporting totalitarian states have said about freedoms throughout history.
Absolutely shameful.
The 2026 election has begun.It'll interesting to see how this pays out.
Lummis is up for reelection, assuming she runs, and she will. She'll blame the Democrats for anything that goes wrong, and talk about being the Cyberqueen.
If she faces a solid challenger, after the Public Lands vote, she'll be in trouble.
The House seat is also up. Hageman won't run for that however, she's going to run for Governor. She's going to lose that.
Chuck Gray is going to run for the House, and he'll lose that.
Times are changing. Whether or not The Big Ugly passes, Trump has shot his bolt. True acolytes can wear "Trump was right about everything" truckers caps, but the opposite is proving to be true.
And this is about to get a lot worse for the GOP.
cont:
And now Nebraska's Don Bacon. The Congressman is in a district that's becoming increasingly Democratic, and my guess is it likely now will be a Democratic seat. The Republicans only hold a seven seat majority right now, which will be reduced to a five seat majority once the Democrats fill two vacant seats. Even assuming the Republicans hold every seat they currently have with out Bacon, that would reduce them to a four seat majority.
But they won't hold every seat. The House will flip.
cont:
Even Elon suddenly woke up.
The Secretary of State, whose job in Wyoming is to be a Secretary, is once again criticizing the Governor, whose job is to govern.
Gray clearly can't stay in his own lane, and is clearly running for something else. Wyomingites are pretty sharply divided on him, with the far right seeing him as some sort of brilliant crusader, and many others seeing him as a self serving buffoon looking for the spotlight to shine on himself.
Gordon among nation’s most popular governors despite criticism from right flank, poll finds: National survey of Wyoming voters shows Gordon’s popularity has remained steady throughout his tenure.
Sen. Eric Barlow will run for Wyoming governor: The Gillette Republican and former Speaker of the House will vie for the state’s top post in 2026.
This is the first really significant announcement in this race. Barlow is a somewhat known name, and definitely a serious candidate. He's a Wyoming native (which Gray is not), a working rancher (which Hageman is not) as well as a veterinarian and apparently not well liked by the Freedom Caucus (which Gray and Hageman are).
There's reason for some cautious optimism here, although I frankly don't know that much about him.
