Calling for more state sovereignty over key issues, former state legislator and Laramie-based attorney Lisa Kinney is running for the Democratic nomination for Wyoming’s only U.S. House seat.
Born in Laramie and living there today, Kinney represented her community in the state Senate from 1985 to 1994, rising to the rank of Senate Minority Floor Leader in her final term.
Being in the Senate was like having 30 spouses — sparring one day and agreeing happily the next, she told Cowboy State Daily.
Over the weekend, Kinney declared her run for the U.S. House, a post now held by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, but which Hageman is not seeking to win this year since she’s running for U.S. Senate on the retirement of Sen. Cynthia Lummis.
Kinney battled disappointment over that: on the one hand, she wants to try winning the House seat; on the other, she wanted to battle Hageman for it since she believes Hageman hasn’t done enough to protect Wyoming’s public lands.
That’s a dear issue for Kinney.
“That’s our land,” said Kinney. “Nobody should take that land away from us at all.”
If Kinney wins, she’ll face off with whoever wins the Republican primary race, which is crowded with at least nine candidates, and any Libertarian and independent candidates who appear on the general election ballot.
Who She Is
Kinney has her Juris Doctorate and her Master’s of Library Science degree, she said.
Her career background, which she cast as eclectic, includes past work as director of the Albany County Public Library, serving as compliance officer for the University of Wyoming, and helping people with their retirement plans through AIG VALIC.
Kinney said she has a pro-freedom streak that surfaces via her history as a librarian as well as through her belief in “freedom of thought, freedom of country, freedom of people.”
Setting aside fringes in both parties, Kinney said Wyoming Democrats and Republicans have a lot in common, and that she nearly ran as a Republican.
She believes the state’s use and long history of embracing coal, oil and gas have been fine, but she’d like to see more energy diversity.
Kinney criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on many fronts, including its significant reduction of subsidies for wind and solar projects. It’s time to invest in people’s innovative strengths, not shy away from them, she said.
“We have to look out for our children and our grandchildren,” she said. “Coal is fine … oil and gas is fine. But what are our kids going to do?”
Kinney said Washington, D.C., has cut funding for other pursuits of “intellect” and that it’s time for the nation to explore energy “and make sure we don’t do something terrible to our state, like maybe those data centers, which are intense.”
She said she’s not a fan of data centers, but if more are coming to Wyoming, people should work together to mitigate their impacts on the people and address them thoughtfully.
Kinney said one friend described her as a “Congressional Robin Hood” because she wants to address the national deficit by imposing targeted taxes on the wealthy while removing income taxes for any family making less than $100,000 per year.
She derided the war in Iran as an expensive conflict “over oil and gas” with no end in sight.
If President Donald Trump must have money to keep fighting that war, Congress should work out a more progressive tax scheme to support that rather than cut health care and welfare services, such as a 4% tax on any person making more than $1 million a year, she said.
“What we have to do is tax the rich more,” she said.
Kinney hopes to see a more transparent handling of the Epstein sex trafficking controversy and documents. She voiced consternation over the notion “there are sexual predators everywhere.”
“Even if they were Democrats, it doesn’t matter — or Republicans,” said Kinney. “We can’t just say there are 3 million pages out there unread. We have to bring that out.”
Kinney held out hope that the next U.S. Attorney General will handle that better.
Immigration
To Kinney, “ICE, of course, is a total disaster.”
She referenced two high-profile killings in which immigration officials were involved in Minneapolis earlier this year. She also cast the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as non-transparent and heavy handed.
“Why should we have armed men with masks and no IDs and unmarked cars take people away?” asked Kinney, adding that she’s haunted by images of “people bending over (with) their hands (tied) behind their backs. Why is that us?”
If elected, Kinney said she’d like to investigate whether ICE officers run on a bounty system, adding that she’d also like to implement a truly worst-of-the-worst deportation policy. She correctly noted that many people taken into deportation proceedings committed misdemeanors or less.
Kinney also urges bipartisan problem-solving in this area, saying party struggles have hijacked the issue and made Congress less than productive.
Independence
Kinney said she believes Wyoming’s three congressional delegates are great people. She knows Lummis and Hageman personally, she said. She doesn’t know Sen. John Barrasso as well, but said he’s well thought-of in general.
But they are “silent” on some issues that will hurt Wyoming, she said.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut $1 trillion form federal health care programs. Kinney cited health care funding cuts as one of the bill’s measures that hurts Wyomingites.
“The R-button (being Republican) seems to make our representatives not say anything — not stand up to what is being forced on us by the federal government,” Kinney said. “Being in the Legislature a long time, I realize that when the federal government wants us to do something, we don’t say, ‘Yes sir,' and do it.”
If elected, Kinney said she wants to represent all Wyomingites regardless of party.
“I don’t see in Wyoming there’s any need not to vote for me,” Kinney said. “I think I have all to offer that’s not currently being offered. And as long as we have that silence from our national folks, I don’t think our needs are being met.”
Abortion, Faith
Kinney said she’s a Christian, and was baptized 12 years ago in the Laramie River.
She said the issue of abortion has been stuffed into a political binary when in years past, it didn’t fall along party lines.
As for Kinney, she said she’s “pro-life for me,” but “pro-choice for everyone else.”
She is married and has three children whom she calls wonderful and kind.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
