We’re building a

BETTER WYOMING

Good Ol’ Boy’s Club politics and a ‘free ride’ from the fossil fuel industries won’t cut it for our state any longer. That’s why we’re educating, organizing, and mobilizing Wyoming residents on behalf of statewide change. We’re the generation that must build a Better Wyoming.

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See how happy you'll feel after you cast your primary election ballot?

DERAILED: Everything you need to vote smart in the 2022 Wyoming primaries (Part 4)

August 4, 2022

Our “DERAILED” series explained why you should vote in the 2022 Wyoming primary elections. Now we tell you how. Find your new voting districts, polling place, and learn how to research your candidates to cast a smart ballot this August.

The Wyoming Gun Owners and WyoRINO both use strategies that target primary elections.

DERAILED: Special interest groups count on low turnout to influence Wyo. primaries (Part 3)

July 29, 2022

Many groups with narrow agendas target the primary elections in order to flip seats in the Wyoming Legislature, and they depend on low turnout to succeed. The more Wyomingites vote in the elections that count, the less influence special interest groups will have over our state.

If you wait til November to vote, you're missing the boat!

DERAILED: No matter what you learned in school, Wyoming Election Day is not in November (part 2)

July 22, 2022

Despite what we learn in school, Wyoming’s real Election Day is in August. All six races for statewide and Congressional seats in 2022 will be decided by then, along with all but a handful of Legislative and county-level contests. If you’re waiting until November to cast a ballot, you’re missing the chance to make your vote count.

DERAILED: The Wyo. Legislature’s 2022 trainwreck budget session (part 1)

July 15, 2022

The Wyoming Legislature's 2022 budget session was a prime example of how our state lawmakers ignore the real problems of Wyoming and instead focus on emotional "hot button" national issues. As home and healthcare prices go up, the struggling fossil fuel industries fail to pay for public schools, and Wyoming can't keep young people living here to build a future, the Legislature is transfixed on issues they repeat from national media. This is the kind of representation we get when only 30 percent of Wyoming residents vote in the elections that count: the primaries.

Illustration by Amanda Pittman

DERAILED: How Wyoming’s Legislature got off track, and how to steer it back (series intro)

July 8, 2022

The Wyoming Legislature has become more concerned with squabbling over hot-button national issues than addressing the real problems of our state. In a new series, Better Wyoming looks at how this happened, and what we need to do to get back on track.

Women in Rawlins will have to drive 100 miles to deliver a baby in a hospital.

Wyoming lawmakers stand by as two more hospitals close their maternity wards

June 3, 2022

Wyomingites understand that we do not have the cutting-edge medical facilities that big cities offer. But that does not mean we should force small-town women to face stressful and even dangerous situations in order to safely give birth. Our state can have a hospital system that serves us all. But that means we need legislators who are willing to help support it.

Nothing to see here, folks. Just some foreign currency drying off after a nice Wyoming bath.

Wyoming’s laws invite dirty money with no benefit to state residents

May 6, 2022

Russian oligarchs and other bad actors take advantage of Wyoming’s lax laws governing trusts and LLCs to hide their fortunes here. What do we get for acting as a global dirty money laundromat? Not much.

The Legislature's tax giveaway won't help Wyoming coal workers—but it will put money in CEOs' pockets.

Wyo. Legislature finally (sort of) admits that the coal industry is dying

April 21, 2022

Unfortunately, state lawmakers’ responses to the industry’s decline won’t save jobs or help coal communities. They will, however, lead to less funding for public schools and higher energy costs for Wyoming residents.

Actual image of Wyoming lawmakers redrawing the state's election map

Save the politicians, screw the people: “Redistricting” showed the bald self interest that drives the Wyoming Legislature

March 18, 2022

Members of the public made clear their wishes for better representation during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2022 “redistricting” process. But in the end, the chaotic ordeal confirmed that most lawmakers’ number one priority is protecting their own political interests.

As anti-choice grassroots advocates have grown more powerful, the Supreme Court ruling has seemed like the only thing preventing abortion bans.

Wyoming Legislature passes law to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned

March 11, 2022

The Equality State will become the 13th in the nation with this kind of “trigger law,” which would put a ban into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its landmark reproductive rights decision.

Voters showed up from across the state in person and on Zoom to testify against SF-97.

Outcry confronts bill to restrict Wyoming voting, prompting committee to kill it

March 10, 2022

More than a dozen Wyoming voters showed up to ask the Wyoming House Appropriations Committee on Monday to defeat Senate File 97, which would limit who can vote in primary elections. They argued the proposal would make voting more difficult and force residents to vote blind. After more than an hour of testimony against it, the committee agreed and thumbed the bill down.

There are two sides to every story, said Driskill, including the Holocaust.

Wyo. House Education Committee kills school censorship bill

March 9, 2022

Sen. Ogden Driskill, the bill’s sponsor, argued that his proposed law would ensure historical events like the Holocaust receive more balanced treatment. Its opponents said it would amount to drawing a target on teachers’ backs.

Abortion bans don't end abortion. They just force women to find other means.

Wyoming edges toward banning abortion

March 4, 2022

A bill moving through the Wyoming Legislature would completely ban abortion in the state—even in cases of rape and incest—in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Another would immediately outlaw “abortion pills,” which can be more readily accessible for Wyoming women unable to travel great distances to end a pregnancy. The progress of these bills demonstrates a radical shift over the past five years in the Legislature’s position on reproductive rights.

Senators Bo Biteman and Charlie Scott led the effort to derail the adults' work.

Wyoming Senate scraps “redistricting” plan in a reckless power play

March 2, 2022

County clerks, legislators, local officials, and members of the public worked for months to reach consensus on a new statewide election district map. On Tuesday, the Wyoming Senate voted to throw that plan in the trash and start from scratch with just seven days remaining in the 2022 legislative session. The Senate’s move is a last-ditch attempt to give outsized influence to rural areas that have lost residents over the past decade, while under-representing more urban areas like Cheyenne that have experienced population growth.

While Wyoming legislators wring their hands and worry about reelection, 25,000 Wyoming residents lack any reasonable access to affordable healthcare.

Procedural hurdles and political calculations help trip up Wyoming Medicaid expansion

March 1, 2022

Rules governing the legislature’s “budget session” and lawmakers wary of right-wing primaries helped thwart efforts to pass Medicaid expansion this year. Meanwhile, grassroots advocates vow to mobilize around the 2022 elections.

COMING SOON: GET OUT THE VOTE 2022!

Stay tuned for details….

HELP US FIGHT FOR A HEALTHY WYOMING!

Better Wyoming is a proud member of the Healthy Wyoming coalition, which leads the fight for Medicaid expansion in Wyoming.

Roughly 25,000 people in our state lack access to basic affordable healthcare because the Wyoming Legislature has refused to update the state’s Medicaid program to cover low-income residents.

I’m in!

SUPPORT OUR CLEAN POWER ECONOMY

Renewable energy development will be a critical part of Wyoming’s economic future. But some folks are desperate to cling to the past.

Join us to support a wind project in Albany County that will bring jobs and tax revenue to a struggling economy, but that’s under threat by an anti-renewables campaign.

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Together, we can build a better Wyoming

Join thousands of people just like you to build the kind of Wyoming that works for everyone

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