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[{"type":"text","text":"We will celebrate this every time we see it....."}]

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Saturday, March 8, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

We will celebrate this every time we see it.....

You Still Here? Saturday, March 8, 2025

 We will celebrate this every time we see it.....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

State Sen. Eric Barlow released poll results Tuesday showing him with a sizable lead over other Republican candidates in the race for Wyoming governor.

[{"type":"text","text":"Two of his opponents doubt that outcome. One of them doesn’t."}]

Barlow, a legislator of 13 years and former House speaker, is running for the Republican nomination against Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, and Centennial man Curt Blake.

His campaign released polling results Tuesday showing him at 42% support, followed by Degenfelder at 19% and Bien at 14% — with 22% undecided — when people were asked who they would vote for if the election were held today.

The poll was taken in the past three days by the Pulse Decision Science firm, the campaign says.

“Barlow has gained 10 points since the campaign’s previous survey and his net favorability has climbed from +19 to +34,” says a Tuesday statement by his campaign. “This comes even as he has been outspent more than 5-to-1 by Degenfelder and the outside groups supporting her.”

Barlow said he’s taken six full trips through all 23 Wyoming counties and is starting his seventh statewide tour.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is set for Aug. 18."}]

“We believed from the beginning that if we showed up, listened and stayed focused on Wyoming, voters would respond,” Barlow said. “This poll is encouraging, but it does not change how we campaign.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We will keep showing up, keep listening and keep earning every vote.\""}]

Barlow told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday-evening phone call that he trusts the polling, and its cross-tabulation veracity checks. He said Wyomingites' reception of him on the campaign trail is also "quite encouraging." 

His campaign has amassed 2,500 volunteers and contributions from nearly 2,000 individual Wyoming donors, with more than $1 million raised from in-state individuals, the statement says.

The statement says Barlow has focused his campaign on expanding economic opportunity, improving access to rural health care, strengthening Wyoming’s energy and agriculture industries, addressing housing challenges, keeping decisions local and keeping the state's public lands accessible to Wyomingites. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Nah, Says Degenfelder"}]

Degenfelder’s campaign manager Charlotte Jones emphasized that Barlow’s numbers are from his own campaign.

“Voters should take the Barlow campaign’s internal ‘polling’ numbers with a heavy grain of salt, which come as no surprise from the campaign of a career politician desperately trying to run from his record of opposing Wyoming Industries and Wyoming values,” wrote Jones in a Tuesday email. 

“Megan’s campaign is focused on talking to voters about the issues they care about and highlighting her record as the only candidate in the race with a proven record fighting for our mineral industries, and defending women’s sports and parental rights," wrote Jones, "which is why she has earned the support of Donald Trump and Harriet Hageman.”

Trump endorsed Degenfelder in January before she entered the race, and doubled down with a 

U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman, who’s running for U.S. Senate, has endorsed Degenfelder and campaigned with her in multiple locations.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not Doing That"}]

The Wyoming Republican Party Central Committee broke tradition Monday night and 

One delegate, Weston County GOP Chair Kari Drost, asked the committee to consider endorsing Degenfelder as well, but the committee cast a majority vote to end the process instead.

The Central Committee considered, but voted against, adopting an official position opposing Barlow.

Bien is not doing polling, says a Tuesday email from his campaign associate Cheryl Aguiar. She called his campaign a grassroots effort.

“As someone who taught statistics to graduate students, I would have all sorts of questions on methodology, sample size, randomness, question wording, and other aspects mainly founded in ‘who paid for the poll?’” she said.

The landline and cellphone call poll was taken from 400 likely Republican primary election voters and with a margin of error of 4.9%, according to the Barlow campaign.

The main prompt asks, “If the Republican Primary election for Wyoming Governor were held today, for whom would you vote?”

Respondents could give answers in three categories for each of the four candidates. For example, for Barlow they could choose “Definitely Barlow,” “Probably Barlow,” or “Lean Barlow.”

[{"type":"text","text":"They could also choose different variations of undecided.  "}]

“Since we don't have the poll's methodology, I would say that this poll is obviously being released by a campaign, so we would advise voters to evaluate it accordingly,” wrote Aguiar. “Our campaign is more interested in what we're hearing from Wyoming  citizens at town halls and community events across the state.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Aguiar said campaigns release internal polling “to tell a story.”"}]

“We respect that. Our campaign is focused, though, on earning votes, not headlines,” wrote Aguiar, adding that no one appears to have gathered 50% of voters and the race has room for “a lot of movement.”

A political action group (PAC) called Women For Responsible Government Action has run multiple attack ads against Barlow, and favorable ads supporting Degenfelder in recent weeks.

This PAC bears a similar name to one linked to Hageman’s campaign for U.S. Senate, “Women for Responsible Government PAC.”

But the group launching TV ads against Barlow is a 501(c)4 issue group run by Hageman’s allies, not Hageman, according to a Thursday text message from Hageman’s campaign advisor Tim Murtaugh.

Murtaugh said Hageman does not control the TV-ad-buying PAC, but it “often aligns with her views, including protecting Wyoming’s children from permanent genital mutilation and preventing coercive gender identity education for kindergarteners.”

Jones said Thursday on Degenfelder’s behalf that the superintendent isn’t aligned with either the action PAC or the PAC funding Hageman’s Senate run.

"Megan is not involved with either organization, and her campaign is not permitted to coordinate with either of them,” wrote Jones. “She is focused on her own campaign and her positive message of making Wyoming more affordable, growing our legacy industries and protecting Wyoming values."

The PAC has run ads touting Degenfelder as a “strong leader” who has stood with Trump, fought for school choice, getting “pornography out of our libraries” and keeping men out of girls’ sports.

Degenfelder has not worked as a legislator and has passed no laws toward those goals. She has backed legislation toward those ends, however.

Soon after she became superintendent she 

 sexually-explicit books out of school libraries. That issue had 

The attack ads lend credibility to Barlow’s favorable poll results, longtime politico and former Assistant Interior Secretary Rob Wallace told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview.

“The fact that Eric has been attacked so hard the last two-to-three weeks tells me the opposition knows that these poll numbers are valid, or similar,” said Wallace. 

He clarified, saying that with “dark money” or independent PACs, people generally don’t know who’s behind them.

Wallace also said it wouldn’t serve Barlow to dispatch bad poll numbers at this phase of the race.

[{"type":"text","text":"Barlow emphasized the ads and the PAC money behind some of them as well."}]

“Eric Barlow is winning this race and pulling away while taking five times more in hostile media spending than any other candidate,” says a Tuesday statement by his campaign.

The statement says Barlow’s campaign team has spent $80,688 on radio and TV ads – about $10,200 more than Degenfelder.

But Women for Responsible Government Action has spent $202,265 and Wyoming’s Turn PAC has spent $149,815 on TV, cable and satellite messaging either backing Degenfelder or opposing Barlow, the statement says.

“The outside groups are blanketing every media market with lies about Eric Barlow’s record reaching Wyoming, Denver, Salt Lake, Idaho Falls, and Rapid City cable zones,” the statement says, “while Barlow has held a disciplined broadcast and radio footprint.”

The statement asserts that “out-of-state dark money is not moving the race; it is hurting Degenfelder and hardening support in Barlow's favor.”

[{"type":"text","text":"What He Actually Voted For"}]

One of the PAC’s ads claims that Barlow voted to allow sexual orientation and gender identity to be taught to kindergarteners and to allow sex change procedures “to be done on kids.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The record tells a different story."}]

Barlow voted against the 2023 Senate File 111, which would have criminalized parents and doctors for their roles in transitioning children’s genders medically.

, calling the bill’s definitions ill suited for its purpose.

Barlow had nothing but praise for the 2023 bill Chloe’s Law, however, and voted in favor of it. The bill sought to strip violating medical professionals of their licenses.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This bill I find to be very precise,” said Barlow at the time."}]

The House Appropriations Committee killed Chloe’s Law that year after the Senate voted 26-5 in its favor. But a later version of it became law in 2024 — with Barlow voting aye once again.

"I absolutely believe minors need to be protected form physically altering surgeries, period," Barlow said Tuesday. He noted that the bill has exemptions allowing treatments for kids with intersex designations or conditions, and puberty blockers for kids with precocious puberty. 

Barlow had, as the ad notes in a subtext, voted against the 2023 

. It sought to ban teaching of gender ideology to public-school kids in grades through kindergarten through third grade.

But Barlow voted in favor of that bill’s 2024 successor, 

The sequel legislation bans schools from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity without prior permission, and compels schools to notify parents if their children experience psychological changes, which may include a newly-voiced transgender identity. 

He told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that the 2024 bill was simply written better. 

"I read the bills, right," said Barlow. "Read the bills. Not just who it protects but how it protects them."

The 2024 bill was "a much stronger bill and much more protective of Wyoming kids, which they deserve," he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Not Surprised At All"}]

Blake hasn’t built the name recognition of the other three candidates and in a Tuesday phone call, and said he was unsurprised to find his name left out of the Barlow campaign’s announcement.

Blake is running as a “purple” Republican, and said he’d love to keep Wyoming as it is. He cast himself as pragmatic.

“I think a poll can say whatever you want it to say,” said Blake. “With that being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if Eric is in the lead. He’s a damn good guy.”

Eric barlow 7 21 26

<title>Barlow Campaign Releases Poll Claiming Big Lead Over Degenfelder And Bien | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Eric Barlow gubernatorial campaign released an internal poll Tuesday showing a significant lead over both Megan Degenfelder and Brent Bien. According to his internal polling numbers, 42% of voters support Barlow while Degenfelder is at 19% and Bien at 14%.

Barlow Campaign Releases Poll Claiming Big Lead Over Degenfelder And Bien

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Outdoors

Jory Thomas, 14, was absent-mindedly flipping loops with a rope while visiting his grandparents' campground on the Yellowstone River over the Fourth of July weekend when he heard someone start screaming for help.

Within seconds, the Montana ranch kid emptied his pockets, splashed across a side channel and waded chest-deep into the river.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he did something he'd spent the past year practicing on calves."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"This time, he roped a drowning man."}]

The July 5 rescue unfolded so quickly that by the time the first Sweet Grass County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived three minutes after Jory's father called 911, everyone was already safely on shore.

"My opinion, Jory saved the individual's life, 100%," Sweet Grass County Sheriff Alan Ronneberg told Cowboy State Daily. "Had Jory not acted, I believe the chances of this individual not making it to shore were very slim.”'

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Boat Hits A Bridge"}]

The Thomas family lives on a ranch about a dozen miles outside Big Timber, directly across from a campground where Jory's grandparents had been staying for the week.

Jory wandered over to visit with his parents and grandparents that afternoon, a rope already in his hand as he casually practiced throwing loops.

"All of a sudden he heard some yells for help," Jory's father, Jase Thomas, told Cowboy State Daily.

A boat had struck a bridge pillar, throwing its occupants into the Yellowstone River.

Three people fell in, but only two managed to get out, leaving one person alone in the swift current, desperately clinging to a cooler.

[{"type":"text","text":"Jory didn't hesitate."}]

Somehow, said his father, he convinced the drowning man to let go of the cooler. Then he threw the rope, catching the man around the neck and one arm. 

Jory and another bystander then pulled the man safely to shore before emergency responders arrived. 

In the moment, Jory didn’t think about any potential danger to himself, he just acted on instinct, the teen told KTVQ television in Billings, Montana, which first 

"This current was pretty fast then, and he was moving pretty quickly," he told the outlet. "Only thing I could focus on was helping him get out of the water because I didn't want to see anyone go in front of me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Let Me Have My Son Back'"}]

Jory's father has spent three decades on the Big Timber Volunteer Fire Department and immediately called 911.

Dispatch records show the call came in at 5:39 p.m. A deputy arrived just three minutes later and reported everyone was already out of the water. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Watching the rescue unfold wasn't easy for the elder Thomas. "}]

He knows that stretch of river, and that it becomes more dangerous just downstream, where swift current, deep holes and logjams create deadly hazards.

"My biggest concern was to let me have my son back," he said before taking a long pause, reflecting on the potential for Jory to also get caught up in the current.

"He understands water, but I don't think he understands what could happen,” Jase said. "I mean, he does, but he had one thing in mind, which is great, and he got it done." 

Jase believes the man his son rescued likely wouldn't have survived much longer.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sheriff Ronneberg agrees."}]

"I'm not sure how close the individual was to being 'lost,' but in my experience such things happen faster than you might guess they can," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Loves Roping' "}]

Although the rescue looked almost unbelievable, it wasn't blind luck. Jory has spent the past year immersing himself in roping.

He practices on roping dummies in his spare time and started roping calves from horseback during local brandings, his father said.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He's always had a rope,\" Jase said. \"He loves roping.\" "}]

Outside of ranch work, he's an avid hunter and is spending this week showing a steer and a pig at the county fair. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'That's Just Who He Is'"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To his family, the rescue wasn't entirely surprising."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Jase said his son has always been the first person to help someone else."}]

"We'll be in town at the grocery store, and you'll see an elderly person," he said. "They can't pack the groceries, and he never says a word. He goes over and gets their groceries and packs them out. That's just who he is." 

Ronneberg said the rescue is a reminder that courage often appears in ordinary moments.

"Jory saw another in trouble and acted, not for himself but for another," Ronneberg said. "He didn't pull out a phone, but a lariat. He didn't watch what was happening but intervened."

"Jory is a lesson for all of us in this day and age and showed us what is courageous and right.”

Montana lasso teen 7 21 26

<title>14-Year-Old Ranch Kid Ropes Drowning Man On Yellowstone River, Saves Life | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 14-year-old ranch kid from Big Timber, Montana, had a rope in his hand when cries for help erupted from the Yellowstone River. He sprinted into the water, threw one loop and caught a struggling man around the arm and neck, pulling him safely to shore.

14-Year-Old Ranch Kid Ropes Drowning Man On Yellowstone River, Saves Life

Kerry Drake

Wildlife

Collisions between cars and wildlife are notoriously bad for all involved, though sometimes lucky drivers walk away without a scratch and animals may receive a glancing blow that surprises them but doesn’t make them roadkill.

[{"type":"text","text":"But how probable is it that a driver in Wyoming will hit a wild animal?"}]

The Wyoming Game & Fish Department said annually there are about 7,600 vehicle collisions with big game, resulting in wildlife and personal injury costs.

 data estimates that the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82. That makes the state the ninth highest at-risk state in the nation. 

For the record, the list is topped by West Virginia, with odds of 1 in 40. The safest state is Nevada, with a probability of 1 in 966. Nationally, the average is 1 in 139.

Cowboy State Daily talked to some Wyoming motorists who have crashed into wildlife (or vice versa, depending on one’s perspective). 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Beware Other Traffic"}]

Michael McDill of Casper had a harrowing experience that involved a big buck deer and another driver who wasn’t paying attention to the scene.

McDill was westbound on the the city's Outer Drive, just past College Drive and before the Yessness Pond turnaround.

“The buck deer came charging up the right side incline so fast in front of me that I hit my brakes and laid on the horn,” he recalled. “I think it was running away from a dog.”

McDill said the deer jumped away from his truck but he clipped him in the rear anyway.

“He spun around in the middle of the road, and just about the time I got stopped, I was slammed into by a truck coming up behind me,” McDill said. “The other driver was watching the deer and did not realize I had stopped.”

What happened next is not included in the odds listed in State Farm’s study, which didn’t document what happens when another vehicle is also involved in the collision.

“(The truck driver) hit me so hard that it twisted my frame, totaling my truck and demolishing the drone of the other driver’s truck,” McDill said. “Luckily nobody was hurt.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But what happened to the buck? "}]

“He got up and trotted off the road,” he recalled. “Probably had a sore rear end for a couple of days.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mother Lives, Fawn Dies"}]

Janet Cunningham said she and her husband were driving down the canyon on Highway 230 toward Laramie when a deer bounded in front of their truck.

“We barely missed her, but then her fawn was following and it ran into our right front tire,” she recalled. “It broke my heart to see the mother turn at the edge of the forest and look back for her baby.”

The couple stopped, as did the person behind them. 

“The guy pulled the fawn off the road and told us it was dead,” Cunningham said. “We were thankful that it wasn’t just hurt badly and suffering.”

But it was nerve-rattling for the Cunninghams. 

“I cried most of the way to Laramie,” she said.

Even if someone hasn’t experienced staring directly into the eyes of a moose they’re about to hit, it’s easy to understand their terror at what would happen next.

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill Van Overbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.

“We walked away but the moose didn’t.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Turn Of The Wheel"}]

“We were on our way to see a (University of Wyoming) Cowboys game,” Jill VanOverbeke told Cowboy State Daily. “It was after dark in our trusty Toyota Highlander.”

She remembered the moose just appeared in front of them.

 “I was driving about 78 mph,” VanOverbeke said. “I turned the wheel a tiny bit and hit her head. The impact point was the driver’s side windshield and she was killed instantly.”

The animal dropped onto the middle of the interstate and was hit by many more cars, with several launching into the air. 

“We ended up on the side of the road with the windshield smashed into a million pieces,” she said.

In addition to the moose, VanOverbeke’s diamond in her wedding ring was a casualty; she said it popped out.

“My son, maybe 10 or 11, was asleep in the back seat,” she said. “He sat up screaming his head off. My husband and I were OK, just stunned. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t turned that wheel — it probably would have landed in our laps.”

To make matters worse, VanOverbeke said they missed the game.

Here’s an example of someone doing a good deed only to be at the wrong place at the wrong time:

Melissa Connely was at her home in Casper when she got a call from her sister, whose car broke down in Medicine Bow. On the way to pick her up, Connely came to Bates Hole, where she knew from experience there were a lot of deer, so she slowed down.

“Sure enough, around the bend, a herd was standing and there was no way to avoid them. I slammed on the brakes and hit a doe,” she recalled.

Connely said the damage was a caved grill and a busted headlight. The deer flipped over the hood and took out the side mirror before leaving the scene of the accident.

She said her two young girls and sister, who were traveling with her, were shaken. 

“I didn’t know what to say to calm the girls,” Connely said, so she made up a story.

“I told them that mommy coyote would take the deer to feed her puppies,” she said. “That seemed to help.”

She worried about what would happen if she hit another deer and broke the second headlight. 

“I was so sad (thinking) if the deer was killed,” Connely said. “It took years for me to drive at night again, and I still think of it every time I drive that stretch of road. I will never lose that sad memory.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Close Call"}]

In the case of Chesie Lee of Riverton, it was the animal that struck her — a gray area because State Farm does not list the odds of an animal colliding with a vehicle as opposed to vice versa.

Lee was driving on Wyoming Highway 135, on her way to Riverton from Laramie.

“I saw an antelope on the left side of the road that was beginning to cross the road in front of me,” she remembers. “I pulled over and came to a complete stop. I braced myself as it knocked my sideview mirror across the road when it made a 180-degree turn, avoiding collision with my car door. I don’t know if it was injured.”

Lee wasn’t able to reattach the mirror but otherwise came through the incident unscathed. That paled, she said, “to the shock of seeing it headed right toward me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deer Most Often Hit"}]

In its study, State Farm noted the industry processed 1.7 million claims involving animal collections nationally from July 2024 to June 2025. That’s about a 100,000 drop from the previous year.

About 1.1 million of the claims involved hitting deer. Autumn is the peak season for such accidents. 

As Cowboy State Daily has previously reported, the end of daylight savings time is 

, and the number of deer getting hit on America’s highways jumps by 16% the week after clocks are moved back an hour and leaves more people 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokeswoman Amanda Fry said wildlife crossings, which are projects funded by her department, the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and wildlife and community groups, significantly lower the number of vehicle-wildlife collisions.

“Those are incredibly effective,” Fry said of wildlife crossings. “Underpasses and overpasses, coupled with wildlife-proof fencing, can reduce crashes by 80 to 90% and allow wildlife to cross roads and get to their seasonal ranges.”

Proper fencing and additional gates can help wildlife cross roads more quickly and avoid conflicts with traffic, she added, and reducing vegetation on the side of roads can make wildlife more visible to drivers.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Roadkill Can Be Taken"}]

But what if you have a collision and a big-game animal is dead? Is it legal to take roadkill?

It is under Wyoming law, but there are requirements and restrictions.

You need approval from Wyoming Game and Fish before collecting roadkill deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, wild bison or wild turkey from vehicle collisions. You can request approval on an incident-by-incident basis through the 511 WYO ROADS mobile app.

But collecting roadkill wildlife can be dangerous. Game and Fish urges motorists to avoid collecting roadkill if traffic is on the highway. The entire animal must be taken and the inedible portions must be properly disposed of in an approved landfill.

You can’t collect roadkill within construction areas or national parks in Wyoming.

Parking off the road is required, and you must turn on your vehicle’s emergency flashers. Field dressing is not allowed on the roadway.

Deer are by far the most hit animal on Wyoming's highways, but elk, pronghorn and moose are on also on the list. A report from State Farm says the odds of Wyoming motorists having an animal collision are 1 in 82, the 9th highest at-risk state in the nation. 

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