CHEYENNE — This coming Republican primary election will test whether an endorsement from President Donald Trump can elect a woman governor in Wyoming.
I am, of course, referring to Megan Degenfelder, the current Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is in a four-way race for the Republican nomination for governor in the August 18th primary election.
Her main opponent is Eric Barlow, a former House Speaker, rancher and veterinarian from Campbell County. He also served in the Wyoming Senate and was one of the moderates, meaning not a member of the hard-right-wing Freedom Caucus.
Wyoming is Trump country. He polled 71.6 percent of the vote in the 2024 election for president, more than any other state.
An imprimatur from him is supposed to be a precious gift for a candidate, as good as a truckload of thousand dollar bills.
That key endorsement is the theme of Degenfelder’s web page as a MAGA candidate pledged to follow Trump.
Like Trump, her campaign web page sells MAGA merchandise.
You can buy a “Megan for Governor” cap or a coffee cup for $34 each.
Maybe with this new approach and the backing of a sitting president, Degenfelder will crack the wall that has been keeping women out of the governor’s chair for decades.
So far the only woman to take the cake was Nellie Tayloe Ross, a Democrat, who supported Prohibition.
She became governor after winning a special election to finish the term of her husband, William Bradford Ross, who died in office.
She lost a bid for re-election in 1926.
According to the Pew Research online site, 18 states have never had a woman governor and 17 have never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate.
In additional to having one woman serve as governor,
Wyoming elected the first woman to the U.S House in 1986, Barbara Cubin, and the first woman to the U.S. Senate in 2020, Cynthia Lummis.
But the state boasts of its standing as “The Equality State” and the first state to give women’s suffrage, the right to vote.
We should expect more.
Arizona has had five women governors.
At any rate, this should be an interesting contest between the MAGA proponents backing Degenfelder and the Republican old guard supporting Barlow.
His campaign theme is his pledge to listen to Wyoming, “not the White House,” a rebuke to Degenfelder.
Although his web page is not as flashy as Degenfelder’s, his long list of team members represents much of the the old guard — traditional Reagan type Republicans of the Republican Party.
Team leaders are Tony Ross, a former state Senate president, Cheyenne lawyer and municipal judge, and Diana Enzi, widow of the late U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi of Gillette. His team also includes many former legislators.
I was not able to find Degenfelder’s team members on her web page.
Wyoming voters seem to have a strange reluctance to vote for women, and, to a lesser degree, former legislators.
The lawmakers are easy prey for opponents. Their votes over years in the House or Senate are a rich cache of issues that can be mined to smear them by opposing candidates.
That is because the legislative process is complicated. A simple “aye” vote can be twisted into a political gaffe by both sides.
Barlow would be the second House speaker elected governor if he is successful. The first was Cliff Hansen of Jackson in the 1960s.
Many other former speakers and legislators have run unsuccessfully for governor over the years.
The notable exceptions were Ed Herschler in the 1970s and Jim Geringer in the 1990s. Neither was in the leadership.
I think that vulnerability and the current divisive political climate are why the Legislature has experienced a loss of members who are lawyers.
It is so easy to turn a simple “aye” vote on an amendment into a political gaffe.
So that is Barlow’s handicap.
Degenfelder’s could be her lack of long-term government experience.
And her Trump endorsement may backfire with a number of voters.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
