Hageman Doesn’t Back Down As Hostile Crowd Curses Her At Unruly Laramie Town Hall

LARAMIE — U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman walked right into a hornet’s nest Wednesday night. 

More than 500 people packed into the Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Civic Center for her town hall, with at least 75% there to oppose her, a startling dynamic in the deeply Republican state of Wyoming. 

It continued a trend of Democrats and those who oppose President Donald Trump and his policies, and Hageman’s support of them, challenging her during a series of her events over the past week.

Things in Laramie turned ugly from the get-go, with some people screaming profanities and flashing the middle finger to Hageman as soon as she took the stage. 

But Hageman would not back down, staying on stage for more than 45 minutes and telling the audience that they were behaving in an embarrassing manner.

At one point she urged them to stop screaming or they might have a heart attack.

Hageman told Cowboy State Daily after the event that what happened Wednesday is common in college towns across America these days.

“It’s what happens in those communities. They’re not capable of listening to someone with a different opinion,” she said. “They’re too immature to have a dialogue.”

However, many of the people protesting Hageman on Wednesday were well past college age, and they brought protest signs with them.

Not Proud

David Wilhelms, who organized a pre-town hall rally against Hageman, told Cowboy State Daily before the event that he appreciated that she was holding the town hall despite not agreeing with her politics. But much of the audience didn’t show the same appreciation.

Wilhelms and Albany County Democratic Party Chair Klaus Halbsgut both promoted the event beforehand as an opportunity to conduct civil discourse with Hageman and let her answer their questions better than a similarly raucous town hall in Rock Springs.

Halsbgut said absolutely nothing was achieved Wednesday, lamenting that the heckling was out of control and not productive.

“We are better than this,” Halbsgut told Cowboy State Daily. “This doesn’t represent Albany County, I’ve lived here too long. I’m heartbroken. This is not who we are.”

He also suspected that some of the most raucous in the audience were not from Albany County.

Wilhelms said he also was disappointed by how the evening went, but he and Halbsgut also said Hageman didn’t help matters throughout the evening, at times answering questions in what they saw as a condescending manner.

Mary Sptiler agreed, and said she often receives this condescending tone when she gets responses to the letters she sends to Hageman’s office.

“My whole take on her is that she was condescending,” Spitler said. “I feel badly a lot of people didn’t let her speak, but that’s the way she is to us.”

Unruly

Hageman started the event by summarizing what she and President Donald Trump’s administration has been up to on Capitol Hill, which drew mostly outrage and interruptions from the audience.

“I get that there are people here who dislike me,” she said, met by a cheer from the audience. “But there are also people here who want to hear what I have to say. If you have so little respect for our process and for what we are in this country, then I would ask you to leave.”

Some of her supporters, including Secretary of State Chuck Gray, gathered in the first few rows of the theater. At one point, Gray started taking video of a pair of girls who were giving him the middle finger for an extended amount of time.

Ultimately, it’s highly unlikely that Wednesday’s showing was emblematic of Hageman’s overall support in Wyoming as she coasted to reelection just last year.

Hageman beat her Democratic opponent Kyle Cameron by about 900 votes in Albany County in the 2024 general election.

Hageman’s Priorities

Hageman mentioned her vote for the Laken Riley Act as well as her support for Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), both met with heavy boos. Later in the evening, Hageman said she would be interested in making DOGE permanent. 

She also sponsored a bill to remove the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species Act. 

When she mentioned the national debt has gone up $45 trillion over the last 15 years, the crowd erupted into chants of “tax the rich!” At another point the crowd erupted into chants of “January 6th!”

About the only topic Hageman got a near universal cheer for was her effort to prevent rural mail distribution centers from closing, which has resulted in both of Wyoming’s mail processing facilities staying open.

If they were to close, a letter being mailed from western Wyoming to eastern Wyoming would have to go through four different states.

“I’m very happy about what we’re able to accomplish there,” she said.

She’s also fought the BLM’s Resource Management Plans (RMP) for Rock Springs and Buffalo, which she described “destructive of the future of Wyoming.”

Hageman consistently defended the Trump administration throughout the evening and said fears that it plans to cut Social Security are false.

Questions Asked

Even though Hageman spent more than 30 minutes answering questions, many people in the audience expressed that they didn’t feel she actually answered what was asked.

One woman asked Hageman about concerns she has that her Ph.D. education program being issued through the Department of Defense will be cut. She asked Hageman if she knows what DOGE is doing, to which Hageman responded she does, and she’s not scared of it.

Another woman said her job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture was already cut in DOGE’s mass firings.

“In a state where so many farmers rely on government programs for drought and disaster relief, Trump’s plans to cut these programs and the people who administer them, coupled with the tariffs will decimate Wyoming farms in rural communities,” the woman said.

Hageman disagreed and didn’t address the woman’s job being cut.

“I haven’t seen it and I don’t think that we will see it,” Hageman said. “I think that our small businesses, our ranchers and our farmers are going to be able to actually thrive in an environment where they are not so overregulated by the federal government.”

Hageman told Cowboy State Daily after she didn’t hear the woman say her job has been cut but expressed condolences for that. She also said one must also consider the moves former President Joe Biden made that cost 10,000 jobs related to a gas pipeline he canceled once taking office.

Another woman asked about how retaliatory tariffs from China could impact Wyoming’s commercial grass growers in the eastern part of the state. Hageman called this “a legitimate question,” but also stated that she believes farmers and ranchers are going to be better off in the long run.

Andi Berry asked Hageman if she would carry on former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson’s legacy of bipartisanship. Hageman responded that she only would if it furthered the interests of the United States, an answer that drew some of the loudest boos of the night.

Lessons To Be Learned

Hageman said she feels sorry for the people who showed up to the event to listen and engage and didn’t get to do so. 

She said she doesn’t expect to stop hosting town halls and also didn’t appear to be swayed at all by the people opposing her.

“I’m not going to allow a small radical group of people say and dictate how I conduct myself,” she said. “I can’t say it was a terrible night.”

Gray told Cowboy State Daily that “the far-left radical Democrats will stop at nothing to shout down and silence their opponents.”

Wilhelms said an important factor to consider is how angry some people are with the Trump administration, who Hageman acknowledged she was representing on Wednesday.

“I think some of that came out tonight,” Wilhelms said. “I’m really sorry that we didn’t have a chance to ask the questions that we have.”

Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@@cowboystatedaily.com

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.