There’s being a Democrat and then there’s being a Wyoming Democrat, which Cheyenne resident Jen Solis sees as two entirely different things.
“Yeah, I’m a Democrat but I want small government, I want local control, I want government as close to the individual as possible,” she said. “I believe in those things because Wyoming Republicans have shown me how effective they are.”
Solis is running for the Wyoming Legislature in House District 41 in Cheyenne against Republican Gary Brown.
She said one of the main inspirations for her campaign came out of a concern that Brown would beat four-term incumbent state Rep. Bill Henderson in the primary. That concern grew to a reality when Brown beat Henderson, R-Cheyenne, in the August primary by 109 votes.
Solis said she's concerned with the direction the Republican Party has gone in Wyoming.
“I very much needed to know that there was a choice on my ballot for House District 41 because Mr. Brown really does not represent the values of most House District 41 folks,” she said. “Having Gary Brown as my representative is not something I want to see.”
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline conservative Republicans, is poised to gain a majority in the state House after posting a blockbuster primary election performance.
The Freedom Caucus has not endorsed Brown’s campaign, and he denies being a member of the group, however his political positions fully align with that of its members.
Brown did not respond to multiple requests to interview for this story. After an original request for an interview was made, he posted a negative remark about Cowboy State Daily’s political coverage on his Facebook page.
"Leo Trotsky Wolfson is a purveyor of misinformation, yellow journalism, and out right lies," Brown wrote. "I made the mistake of responding to him twice, but it will never happen again!"
The race between Brown and Solis should be competitive as Henderson battled a few close races with various Democratic candidates since his first election in 2016.
Who’s Solis?
Solis ran against Henderson in 2022, losing by 221 votes.
She has built a campaign this fall around making an appeal to independent and Republican voters in her north central Cheyenne district. Even though she’s faced doubt from some about voting for a Democrat, Solis said she’s still been encouraged about the feedback she’s got along the campaign trail.
“The vibes are good, the vibes are really really good in HD 41,” she said.
Who’s Brown?
Brown, who is retired, told Cowboy State Daily this March that he moved to Wyoming from Colorado in 2011. Over the last few years he’s become a familiar face at the Legislature, regularly testifying on bills and expressing hardline conservative views.
In March, Brown told Cowboy State Daily he’s an open-minded, common-sense thinker who often thinks of others before himself -- attributes he would like to see more of in current day society.
“I care about people, I care about what people are going through,” Brown said. “We need to help the people in Wyoming. We need to really care and look at what people are going through.”
Brown has no other past political experience beyond serving as a precinct committeeman for the Laramie County and Larimer County, Colorado, Republican parties, and volunteering with a few different campaigns in both states.
In September, Brown said while campaigning in his district, he experienced a common sentiment of dissatisfaction with Henderson’s representation and that the Wyoming state government is wasting taxpayers’ money.
“Overtaxing and wasting the people’s money is not only wrong, it is immoral. I talked about these principles with the people throughout House District 41 and they agreed with me,” Brown said. “I believe that these are ideas that Democrat and Independent voters in my District would also agree are best for Wyoming.”
Abortion
Solis and Brown have many differing positions on issues.
Solis has vocally opposed many of the efforts in Laramie County to restrict access to books some consider sexually graphic in school libraries, while Brown has supported these efforts.
He’s pro-life on abortion while Solis is pro-choice.
On Thursday, Brown posted a plea to his Facebook that people go through a pregnancy and give their child up for adoption rather than getting an abortion.
“There are so many childless couples that want a precious child to love and care for,” he said. “Please don't live the rest of your life with the guilt of having killed your own child. Let some loving couple love and raise that beautiful baby.”
Solis believes the government should not regulate access to abortion and wants more focus put on preventing unexpected pregnancies.
“If I wanted to live in a state that restricted my medical freedom I would go live in another state,” Solis said. “If I wanted the government to tell me what book I can and cannot read I would go live in another state.”
She is a mother of three children now, but Solis said she suffered through about a decade of miscarriages prior to giving birth. Had Wyoming’s laws passed in recent years curtailing abortion access been in effect then, Solis said she would have been put “in harm’s way.”
Solis said she suffered the exact same medical circumstance as a woman she believes recently died in Georgia after a hospital there spent about 20 hours deliberating about whether it would be allowed to operate on her after she suffered an infection upon taking abortion pills. At the time, Georgia had a law restricting all abortions after six weeks after conception.
“I cannot tolerate the idea of a woman in the position I was in 13 years ago experiencing that,” she said. “Pregnancy is so personal and to have the government dictating when it’s OK to get the care you need is not acceptable.”
School Funding
Solis wants to see more money given to public schools in Wyoming, mentioning the dilapidated state that Arp Elementary School in Cheyenne was allowed to fall into and become condemned. Now, students from the south side of Cheyenne that live nearby Arp must travel to a completely different part of town in order to go to an adequate school.
Solis said this temporary replacement school isn’t free of issues either, as there was a threat of an electrical fire there last winter that led to the evacuation of the building. It also has poor air ventilation and heating.
“I think our kids deserve better,” she said.
Brown said in March he’s spent significant time studying the budget in preparation for the Legislature, and believes the state is wasting money. It’s this work, he said, that convinces him property taxes can be lowered in Wyoming without making a significant hit to any government agencies or schools. He believes some legislators are lying about how much money is being saved on a year-to-year basis.
“You don’t have to tap people more, you’re hiding money, they’re actually hiding money,” he said. “They’re lying to us.”
Property Taxes
On property taxes, Solis said she wants to see targeted relief rather for long-term homeowners and people living on fixed incomes rather than broad-sweeping reductions that also assist wealthy homeowners or out-of-state investors who rent out their Wyoming properties. As a whole, she wants to see more primary homeownership in Wyoming.
“If you’re going to cut that (tax rate) in half, the only thing that’s going to do is drive investors and drive people that can afford to have a second, a third, a fourth home, to gobble up the housing units and then we lose the character of our neighborhoods,” Solis said.
One of the property tax bills that did pass into law this year provides 50% tax reductions to senior citizens who have paid property taxes in Wyoming for 25 years or more. Brown said he would support lowering this threshold to 10 to 15 years.
He views initiating an acquisition-value based taxation system as the only real solution for property tax relief. This solution, considered one of the most aggressive approaches to property tax reforms, would base taxation on the original purchase price of people’s homes.
Brown believes this would motivate homeowners to do more remodeling on their homes, and in result put more money into the local economy and increase sales tax revenue. He said he knows a few people in his district who have held back on making improvements to their homes based on the fear that it will cause their property taxes to rise.
“That’s another way to get it (tax revenue), at the same time you’ll have people feeling they can do something with their money,” Brown said. “That means a lot to people.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
