Back to Blog
The mountain politicats6/21/2023 ![]() ![]() He had a lot to say about Wyoming’s future. Robert Short, a former nuclear scientist, was my last interview. I passed windmills and trains full of coal. The final leg of my listening tour was quintessential Wyoming. (Will Walkey/Wyoming Public Media) A tourist attraction in Douglas, the self-proclaimed, "Jackalope Capital of the World." In general, Masket said this election showed that red areas across the country are getting redder, and blue areas are getting bluer. “For a long time, it's just been considered a purple state, a very competitive state, and it's looking just much more deep blue now,” Masket said. New Mexico went solid blue in state and federal races, and Democrats also did very well in Colorado, especially considering high inflation and President Biden’s unpopularity. Masket said issues like energy and shifting demographics could be less impactful in these states.Īrizona and Nevada still have some races up in the air, but Democrats won two crucial senate races there. Judging by election results, priorities are different south of Wyoming, where states tend to be more urban and diverse. ![]() It's certainly plausible that there's more resentment along those lines, particularly in places like Montana, where some smaller cities have seen a pretty substantial increase in housing prices,” Masket said. Many people moving to states in our region could also be migrating to avoid more liberal policies in coastal states. Seth Masket, a professor at the University of Denver, said there could be some backlash from longtime residents, especially because many of the fastest growing states in the country are in the Mountain West. Rapid shifts in less populated areas could be having an effect on politics. ![]() (Will Walkey/Wyoming Public Media) A mural at Gillette's downtown 3rd Street Plaza. I turned around to see a herd of several hundred sheep moving through downtown. Many candidates in these states have pushed back on the federal government’s moves supporting renewables and promoted energy independence.īut energy is not the whole story in Wyoming – or the region.īetween two stops on the tour, I filled up my Subaru with unleaded fuel in Kaycee, a mostly ranching community. house and senate seats in Utah, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Republicans swept races for open governorships and U.S. The GOP dominated midterms across much of the region. The fraught and complex move away from fossil fuels is top of mind for many in Wyoming and across the Mountain West. ![]() “They're not going to go down to the shop and buy a couple T-shirts.” “Our hotels, when they're full, they're full of the guys working on the wind farms, coal bed methane workers, oil field workers, they're not your tourists,” Douglas mayor Rene Kemper said. “I've just seen so many people who had great jobs now don't have it, and they don't have the insurance,” said former railroad worker Joanne Hanson. Will Walkey/Wyoming Public Media The Better Together Mural in Casper contains the names of over 1,200 community members and essential workers. Other state residents would like to see Wyoming diversify as well. He also said it’s important that small businesses continue to fill storefronts and restaurants downtown. But the cycles, the boom-bust cycles, we just really want to try to find a way to smooth that out a little bit for people.”įarley wants Casper to become even more of a hub for manufacturing, aerospace and science. “We’re a very industrious, extraordinarily talented workforce. “We really have to be self-reliant,” he told me. Justin Farley, CEO of Advance Casper, the local economic development alliance, said a lot of his job is convincing new companies to see Natrona County’s appeal beyond the typical boom-bust cycles of energy development. It was uncharacteristically warm and quiet when I visited on a recent Thursday in October. Casper, for example, is hours from any out-of-state metro area and has historically relied on oil and natural gas for much of its economic output. Some of Wyoming's cities are at a crossroads as the state looks to diversify its economy and tax revenues. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Will Walkey recently went on a “listening tour” across Wyoming to hear how residents are contending with change. At the same time, the state is reinventing itself, as the energy transition and, in some communities, a wave of new residents bring big opportunities and challenges. Wyoming's midterm elections sent the deep-red state even further to the right. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |