Door-to-Door June 15
Lindsey, Ty, and I canvassed again last night. It was very rewarding! The wind sort of died down a little bit, so the weather was gorgeous. I met a lot of really cool people who were willing to talk to me at the door and offer me encouragement. I will do my best to win in order to represent them! I feel good about Wyoming’s future today!
State Democratic Convention
The whole Hanlon4Wyoming team were delegates at the Wyoming State Democratic Convention in Rock Springs. Our hosts, the Sweetwater County Democratic Party, were wonderful. The theater space at Western Wyoming Community College was a great venue, and the post-convention dinner was great fun.
Mostly, it was great to be around so many people with such great energy and such good plans and hope for the state! It all just makes me smile! What an energizing weekend.
Black Dog Animal Rescue
Ty and I played (badly!) in the cornhole tournament to support Black Dog Animal Rescue. It is a great cause and a great event that showcases some of the great attributes of the Cheyenne community.
People of all different political persuasions were there. Ty and I know because we talked to many of them. However, they had in common that they wanted to support the animal rescue mission and they wanted to be part of the community. If we all work together toward this common goal of fostering a kind community and having some fun along the way, our little state of Wyoming will be a better place!
Grandkids
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I enjoyed epic water gun and water balloon fights with the grandchildren in Houston. Now, the play was awesome and the grandchildren are wonderful, but why Houston? Because that is where the children went to find jobs after graduating from the University of Wyoming. As teachers in Houston, there income is far higher than would be in Cheyenne. The cost of living is lower. There was no logical way to convince them to stay here!
It should not be that way in the future. The smart, creative and dedicated kids that get education degrees from the University of Wyoming ought to be able to get competitive jobs in Wyoming. After all, Cheyenne has the best summers in the United States! It is the best place for water guns and grandchildren!
Educators Need Our Support
The thumbnail image above is from the Casper Star Tribune. The Sheridan Press reports the results of a survey that indicates 65% of Wyoming teachers would leave teaching if they could. How unfortunate! Great teachers are one of Wyoming’s most precious resources. Educators deserve our support. Good public policy is a great way to start. Much work can be done in the state legislature to improve educator pay and working conditions. These education jobs are the anchor jobs for many small rural communities. If we want to save our way of life, we can’t let loose our teachers!
More Good Candidates!
My friend Jordan Evans is running for Wyoming House District 5. Check out his Facebook page. Jordan believes in effective and reasonable state government, just as I do.
Mentoring Entrepreneurs
Good broadband connections enable every type of remote business, from software engineers, to civil engineers and architects, to crafters who want to sell their wares online.
But all of these endeavors require knowledge of business details that Wyomingites who want to work remotely may not have at first.
Fortunately, we have the Wyoming Small Business Development Center—they can provide many types of business support, including entrepreneurs mentoring entrepreneurs. I will fully fund and support this effort. Small remote Wyoming businesses created by entrepreneurs can make Wyoming’s economy thrive, even when jobs in the fossil fuels industry are not available.
Broadband Availability
Laramie County Wyoming is a fantastic place to live. The schools are good, the traffic is light (or nonexistent!) and the outdoor opportunities are glorious. Doing remote work, entrepreneurs can be just as effective in Horse Creek, Wyoming as they are in Poughkeepsie, New York! The keys to success are good ideas, good mentoring, and a good broadband connection. Unfortunately, some places in the county (like Horse Creek, for instance) lack that good broadband connection.
Fortunately, there is funding available (without touching state revenue!) to improve broadband availability in Wyoming. I will unlock those funds and ensure that hurdle is behind us. In a future post, I will talk about improving mentoring opportunities.
I am a champion of remote work because it provides great business opportunities for us and for future generations. My goal, as always, is to make sure our children and grandchildren can stay here and enjoy this amazing state!
Congratulations!
We are thankful for all of the great Democratic candidates who have filed to run this year. The more we get our message out there, the better Wyoming will be.
Neutralizing Bullies
We are living in the age of the bully. The defining trait of the former president was bullying. The leader of Russia is a bully. Closer to home, the Wyoming State Republican Party bullies each other to the point of fisticuffs. Bullies so dominate the state legislature that not much gets done but shouting. What does get done seems clearly intended to bully the people of Wyoming. Even closer to home, Black school children are routinely bullied as they try to attend Laramie County School District No. 1 schools.
So, it appears that those of us who want to get things done and who want to do those things with kindness and thoughtfulness had better develop some strategies for neutralizing bullies.
I was bullied often when I was in school, so I have my own thoughts on strategies for neutralizing bullies, but I want to hear your thoughts. As we interact on the campaign trail, I will be trying to learn from you. It is certain that the bullies won’t stop on their own!
Peace
War is always hardest on children. The atrocities committed by the Russian government in Ukraine have caused me to think a lot about the tragedy and futility of war. When you think about it, is any political objective worth ruining one child’s life?
Often, when we see these tragedies unfold thousands of miles away, we feel like there is so little we can do. We contribute what we can to a relief organization, but otherwise feel helpless!
To force the Russian government out of Ukraine, we can do more. The chancellor of Germany has implored the people of Germany to conserve energy, in order to make it easier to stop importing Russian oil.
The United States produces more oil than any country in the world. If we, the citizens of the United States, would follow the chancellor’s advice, we could free up many millions of barrels of oil that could be used by the people of Europe. Every barrel of oil that we can export to Europe, displacing a barrel of Russian oil, brings the atrocity closer to ending. Perhaps it is the one barrel that will save the life of a child.
I propose that we pick a day a week to stop using gasoline or diesel fuel. It seems like a small sacrifice for the children of Ukraine. I pick Tuesday. I will let you know how it goes!
Financial Help for Childcare
Wyoming workers deserve an affordable, high quality, child care solution. I see a future that includes comprehensive, state coordinated, public-private partnerships delivering the best child care in the United States to communities large and small across Wyoming.
But, many Wyoming families need a solution today!
The Meridian Trust North Star Foundation recognizes that families in transition are especially in need of help. They have started a grant program that can provide up to $500 to cover child care costs for parents that are entering the workforce, changing employment, or having a new child entering child care. Students attending an accredited Trade School, Community College, or University can also apply. Please go to https://www.northstarfoundation.com/childcare-initiative to learn more and apply.
Helping Rural Hospitals
We know that failure to expand Medicaid is hard on small rural hospitals. They are forced, out of kindness, into the position of providing services for hard-working folks who have no insurance and therefore taking a loss.
An April 13, 2022 article by Liz Carey in the Daily Yonder points out that their precarious financial position goes beyond our egregious failure to expand Medicaid: Nearly half of rural hospitals lose money on childbirth services. Rural families are more often on Medicaid than families in urban areas. Medicaid does not fully cover the hospital’s cost, so they are still losing money. Many rural hospitals keep childbirth services open, even in the face of a negative balance sheet, because they know how important the services are to the community.
Further, closing childcare services has a domino effect: After they close, other services close, and soon, the entire little hospital is closed. The community not only loses access to medical care, they lose the good jobs that were an anchor for the economic well-being of the community—boarded up main streets follow!
The solution seems obvious: We must work with the stakeholders to make sure outside funding sources ensure that these little hospitals break even. Medicaid Expansion is a necessary first step, but it is the first step!
Finding Voters
We need help finding the folks that love our message, but have not yet engaged in the political process. We know there are folks out there that believe in Medicaid Expansion, help for Wyoming workers, and a better deal for Wyoming educators—just like we do. But, they aren’t involved in the political process.
We will need those people to win—and we will fight for them every day! Can you help us find them and make sure they have a plan to vote in 2022? You may have a neighbor or a friend who doesn’t vote, or doesn’t vote in off-year elections. We will really need your vote in the fall and we will really need theirs!
If folks need help with registration, we can walk them through the process. Reach out to us by clicking on the “Get Involved” button and we will make sure that they get the resources they need.
I Resolve to Make You Proud!
So far, the donations to my campaign are more than I could have hoped for. Some of the donations come with touching personal notes. These donors always wish that they could have donated more. And they always volunteer support for the campaign, even though it is easy to see that they have very busy lives and not much time. These notes mean so much to me! Having the support of people like that who give us their time and treasure, even though they don’t have much to spare of either, is very motivating.
To those donors I want to say that, with the support of people like you, I can’t lose. I will work hard to win and work hard to make Wyoming a better place! Thank you so much!
The campaign is public!
My awesome team has been working behind the scenes for weeks to make sure the campaign for Senate District 5 launches successfully and tonight is the night. We will have a gathering of friends and allies at Kelly’s house. All of our plans: my remarks (heavily influenced by Lindsey and Freddie); Kelly’s hospitality; Jen’s organization; our terrific logo; our swag; our analysis of the challenges we face in the field; and Jason’s video genius will be judged by others for the first time. I am excited. There is no one who can do this better than the team we have put together. I can’t wait to tell you how it goes.