As of Monday, 35 Wyoming political candidates have sworn to love their enemies.
The nonprofit group Become Peacemakers launched last September after the public killing of conservative icon Charlie Kirk, and has since been working to restore the servant spirit and civility to the public arena in Wyoming.
The Tuesday after the May 14-29 filing period ended for political candidates, the group sent each candidate a pledge, group incorporator Matt Micheli told Cowboy State Daily.
“I will love my enemies, not just my friends. I will stand faithfully upon my convictions without giving into cruelty,” the pledge says. “I will call out wrongdoing without canceling people.
"I will refuse to let the letters on someone’s hat or the hashtags in their bio mean more to me than the Gospel. I will not be swept up in the outrage cycle, but will instead step out of the chaos and boldly examine my own actions.”
The signers also commit to “bring the peace of Christ back into the public square — to show a divided world what it truly looks like to follow Him, not as a culture warrior but as a Kingdom person.”
The pledge invokes the group’s founding verse, Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
Two of the three GOP candidates for governor had signed the document as of Tuesday: Sen. Eric Barlow and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.
So too had three of the 10 Republican U.S. House candidates: Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, and Casper-based veteran Kevin Christensen. U.S. Senate candidate Jimmy Skovgard is also among the signers.
Gov’s Race
In the governor’s race, Barlow told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t normally answer candidate questionnaires, but this one was “quite simple” and in line with the promise he made last year to run a clean campaign anyway.
“And whether we agree on issues or don’t, we can still be respectful and honoring of them as, you know, fellow human beings,” Barlow said.
Degenfelder did not return a Tuesday voicemail by publication.
Another GOP gubernatorial candidate, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, did not comment in response to an email and voicemail
Wyoming Can Use It
One former lawmaker, Ray Peterson, told Cowboy State Daily this pledge could be effective in Wyoming, and that he wants to help the group’s cause.
Another former lawmaker, Fred Harrison, was less optimistic about the pledge’s ability to curb vitriol in the state’s political arena. But he said each person should take the effort seriously.
As for Micheli, he said the pledge is meant to be unique.
Wyoming candidates face a number of pledges and have for years.
In 2020, the group Wyoming Gun Owners launched a pledge-style survey to candidates and derided the political hopefuls who didn’t sign it with phrases such as, “(it’s) a very dangerous situation for gun owners,” or “we all know what that means.”
More recently, the Wyoming Republican Party and its county subgroups launched a candidate pledge based on the state party platform.
Some candidates have pointed to inconsistencies in the platform wording and called the pledge a “purity test.” Others have called it a much-needed revival call for Wyoming’s broad-based GOP.
Micheli said the Peacemakers pledge isn’t meant to be used as ammunition, because its wording discourages that.
“The goal of this is kind of the opposite of all these other pledges you see out there,” he said. “The other pledges are kind of putting people into tribes and trying to figure out what tribe you’re in.”
Micheli said this pledge, however, tells each candidate to “look inward” and improve instead of “hammering anybody else over the head with it.”
Might Just Work
Peterson, who served in the Wyoming Senate from 2005 to 2018, lauded the effort.
“I could certainly get behind a movement like that,” said Peterson.
Peterson had voiced similar goals one week prior on a live video interview on Cowboy State Daily's Morning Show With Jake, in which he called for civility.
Though the effort is “the light at the end of the tunnel” in what Peterson cast as a darkening, exhausting political arena, people will have to refocus on one another as fellow human beings to make it work, he said.
“If you love the person that’s opposed to either your way of life or philosophy or way of thinking,” he said, “and in your mind, your core belief is this is a brother, a sister, a person — and I don’t know what life experiences they’ve had, what brought them to the beliefs they have — it at least gives (one) the courtesy to be patient and listen.”
It takes effort to see the person through the issues. It’s also difficult to ratchet people down from the fiery realms to which public discourse has risen, said Peterson.
“It’s hard work to listen to somebody yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, random thoughts and things to be argumentative … and say, ‘Oh, I can see you’re very passionate about your belief but you’re not making any sense,’” he said.
Rules of decorum in public arenas, the humility to apologize to one another where necessary, and applying mental rigor toward the actual issues are the way back to civility, Peterson added.
If people avoid dehumanizing and screaming at each other, their conversation will also get smarter, he said.
Starting With You
Harrison wasn’t as optimistic as Peterson, but called the pledge’s mission a worthy undertaking for each individual regardless of what society does.
“I’m not seeing a willingness on both sides of the aisle to discuss (differences),” he said. “I appreciate what they’re doing. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
But, he added, “I’m not sure it’s always going to work, but that doesn’t mean anything. What did Mother Theresa say? We’re called to be faithful, not successful.”
Harrison served in the Legislature from 1983-1992.
He was a Democrat then. But, ardently pro-life and socially conservative, he parted ways with the party starting in about 1992 and is now Republican. He’s also grown more fiscally conservative, Harrison said.
Harrison now writes a regular column for Cowboy State Daily in which he often scrutinizes the current state of the judiciary and jurisprudence.
“People think my articles are pretty sharp,” he said with a chuckle. Yet on May 9, he penned a column urging people against resorting to violence or violent sentiments against judges, saying that nullifies good arguments on the issues.
If people wish to apply the peacemaker group’s pledge, it will take honest discussion, he said. People also have to start taking the high road and stop de-humanizing each other, he added.
The Signers, So Far
Micheli told Cowboy State Daily the group didn’t give candidates a deadline to sign the pledge. So this list isn’t final. As of Monday, the 35 signers spanned the governor’s, congressional, state legislative, and county commission races. They are:
Gubernatorial candidates
Eric Barlow
Megan Degenfelder
U.S. Senate candidate
Jimmy Skovgard
U.S. House candidates
Jillian Balow
Bo Biteman
Kevin Christensen
State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate
Steve Harshman
State Senate candidates
Evie Brennan
Ogden Driskill
Ronald McCleary
Marcia Neumiller
Lauren Schoenfeld
Wendy Schuler
State House candidates
Dalton Banks
Elizabeth Bingham
Ronda Boller
Peter Boyer
Jessica Crowder
Christopher Dresang
Erin Edwards
Justin Fornstrom
David Hill
Lloyd Larsen
Martha Lawley
Matthew Legler
Jayme Lien
Roland Luehne
Myca Sturtevant
Shane Swett
Art Washut
John Wetzel
JD Williams
Paul Wing
Bill Winney
County Commission candidate
Macey Moore (Converse)
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
