CHEYENNE—Several Laramie County residents have reached out to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in recent days, saying they never received information from U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s office on how to tune into her tele-town hall last Friday evening.
To listen to the town hall, residents were told they needed to complete an online form stating their name and address. On that form, they were given an option to submit a question for the representative to answer during the hour-long call.
Around 15 minutes before the town hall was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Hageman’s office sent out an email containing the phone number to dial into the call and a passcode to enter the call.
However, some who say they successfully filled out the form also say they never received this email. One of those who reached out to the WTE about this is Carol Mathia.
“I am conjecturing that Hageman chose which constituents she wanted to listen in and decided we were not ones she wanted,” Mathia told the WTE in an email.
Lynn Carlson reached out to the WTE, saying the same thing. She said that she wrote a respectful question about the First Amendment with no bad language, but did not receive an email to attend the town hall.
“I never received the link, so I was not able to attend the Town Hall. How can we do better when we are excluded?” Carlson told the WTE in an email.
A staff member in Hageman’s office said all those who signed up and are county residents received an email.
“All Laramie County residents who signed up using the online form received outreach to join the tele town hall. Over 1,000 joined the call,” Hageman’s office said in an email response to an inquiry from the WTE.
In addition, some residents who said they didn’t attempt to register for the town hall reported receiving a robocall from Hageman’s office at 6:37 p.m., inviting them to connect with the tele-town hall, which was already in progress.
During the call, Hageman fielded 16 questions reportedly submitted by those who filled out the form, and those listening to the call had the opportunity to dial 3 to submit their own question during the call. It is unclear how many of the questions were submitted online versus during the call.
Regardless, listeners did not have the opportunity to speak directly to Hageman during the town hall, as a member of her staff read the questions to her, and she took a few minutes to respond to each question uninterrupted.
In a news release sent out March 25, Hageman cited safety as the primary reason for stepping away from the in-person events she had been hosting throughout her time in office. This came after she said a woman followed her after an event in Wheatland, and she said there was a swatting incident at her Cheyenne residence. Swatting is falsely reporting an emergency to public safety by a person for the intent of getting a “SWAT team” response to a location where no emergency exists, according to 911.gov.
Platte County Sheriff David Russell confirmed that a woman in her 60s or 70s followed Hageman after the Wheatland town hall, but was removed and not arrested. Cheyenne Police Department Chief Mark Francisco told the WTE he could not find any reports of a swatting incident occurring at Hageman’s residence, which is inside city limits.
Cheyenne resident Tom Dixon criticized Hageman’s move to tele-town halls in a letter to the editor submitted to the WTE last week by email.
“This isn’t partisan outrage. It’s practical, widespread fear,” he wrote, referring to the shouting and booing that occurred at several of Hageman’s recent in-person town halls, including a particularly raucous one in Laramie. “Ranchers, scientists, postal workers, park employees, students and families are all feeling the effects of her choices in Washington. Hageman owes it to them to show up, face the consequences of her actions, and listen. And not just in a scripted webinar, but in person, on the ground, in the communities she was elected to serve.
“A real representative doesn’t hide from the people. If Hageman wants to hold the reins of responsibility, she must stop running from the reaction.”
One other resident reached out to the WTE by text message, claiming they had signed up for the tele-town hall but never received the phone number to call in to the event. The WTE has been unable to confirm whether these forms were filled out correctly without typos, or that the residents did not actually receive the email and it was redirected to a “spam” or “junk” folder.
The Laramie County Democratic Party hosted an in-person town hall event Friday evening at Laramie County Community College — where Hageman was previously scheduled to hold her next in-person event that night — to assemble questions and comments and send a statement summarizing those to Hageman’s office.
At that event, several attendees expressed concern about giving their personal information to listen to Wyoming’s sole U.S. representative speak over the phone.
When asked by the WTE, Hageman’s office did not say there were any technical issues with the event and did not say whether tele-town halls will be any different going forward. At Hageman’s online town hall on Friday, she said she hopes to resume in-person town halls this month “if we can get the temperature turned down a little bit and make sure that we can provide for the safety and security of people who attend.”
Other than the comments Hageman made in her announcement of the switch from in-person to tele-town halls, there have been no reports of violence between attendees at any of the events the congresswoman held in March.
After the last couple of days under the Trump/GOP scorched earth policy on our economy and livelihood, the Republicans better start thinking about a midnight escape to Argentina. As worthless and stupid the Wyoming trio Barasso, Lumis and Hageman have proven to be, these sellouts better get their seats on the U-Boat bound for Buenos Aires reserved. There’s a whole bunch of Americans that have had their life savings practically wiped out in a matter of hours and I don’t know if the U.S. can wait for 2026 mid-term elections
I’m with Sherri Lovercheck…I submitted the requested information – actually twice since I thought I had made mistakes. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get the contact info about the tele-town hall. I was very disappointed. (I also used my given name of JoAnne since that’s how I’m a registered voter.)
Like Thomas Wood said, we can all take the right actions in the midterms to stick the cowardly lying hypocritical witch’s broom where the sun doesn’t shine! And she won’t have Trump showing up to kiss her on the lips then either! We have had disgraceful representation in DC for way too long.
Brave Lady Hageman, afraid to face her voters hides behind a staffer and a computer so she won’t have to hear anyone speak ill of President Musk.
Hageman is beyond hope. She’s a goner. She is irrevocably tied to Trump and Trumponomics which are rapidly falling into the abyss.
Isn’t Dark Money paying for zero-sum politics just great. Boomers should be proud of their economic exceptualism.
My good friend from Germany, who recently became a US citizen, said that what is happening in our country, reminds him of what happened in Germany in 1933. TAKE NOTE!
The DOW dropped 1,700 points today and our cowardly Representative is dodging real time conversations with her constituents by opting to do selective virtual town halls. It takes an extremely sick and evil individual to be instep with Trump after he crashed the stock market and has ruined retirement plans for millions of hard working people and now lookout for sky high prices at the Safeway. Harriet Hageman, you are fork tongued and a vile person who’s showing the world what an incompetent and backstabbing un-American you really are. See you in the mid term elections, you cowardly Witch
Harriet Hageman is in thrall to Donald Trump. She cannot represent her constituents when Trump is busy dismantling our economy and services to vulnerable adults. She has to choose and she has chosen to ingratiate herself to Trump, a man she once vilified. She is too thin-skinned to be in Congress as evidenced by the way she reacted in her in-person town halls, resorting to making ridiculous statements such as “why are you all so obsessed with federal government?” and calling the crowd “hysterical”. (“Hysterical” is a long established, misogynistic trope used by men toward women they are determined to gaslight. Interesting that a woman would use it.) To be fair, our entire congressional delegation has abandoned their Wyoming constituents in favor of becoming handmaidens to Trump. Not one of them will come to the aid of Wyoming citizens when Social Security, Medicaid and Veterans services are eliminated. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.
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Harriet Hageman is in thrall to Donald Trump. She cannot represent her constituents when Trump is busy dismantling our economy and services to vulnerable adults. She has to choose and she has chosen to ingratiate herself to Trump, a man she once vilified. She is too thin-skinned to be in Congress as evidenced by the way she reacted in her in-person town halls, resorting to making ridiculous statements such as “why are you all so obsessed with federal government?” and calling the crowd “hysterical”. (“Hysterical” is a long established, misogynistic trope used by men toward women they are determined to gaslight. Interesting that a woman would use it.) To be fair, our entire congressional delegation has abandoned their Wyoming constituents in favor of handmaidens to Trump. Not one of them will come to the aid of Wyoming citizens when Social Security, Medicaid and Veterans services are eliminated. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.
It’s beginning to seem like the Orange Monkey cartel is actually trying to do great economic damage to the nation. Are they going burn us to the ground and rebuild under a true dictatorship where the likes of Broomhilda Hageman control what you do? We’re seeing Germany circa 1933 and I can tell you that the people are concerned, frightened, mad and absolutely fuming and am willing to bet there’ll be 1968-like uprising in the streets, but hope instead for a peaceful change of leadership in the upcoming 2026 mid term election. As of now the cowardly GOP-types are playing a run and hide game from frail old retirees concerned about their 401k and Social Security at some town hall meeting. In my 75 years I’ve watched my GOP form into a neo nazi sect and I doubt that citizenship will just stand band let it happen. We can do better then a conniving and gutless black heart then Hageman
Hageman is a liar, just like her orange master.
So Hagmen LIED about the swatting incident at her home in Cheyenne. According to this article, Cheyenne police have no record of such an incident. I guess being followed by a senior citizen, who was no doubt pleading for social security to be protected, isn’t scary enough. Wyoming’s elected United States Representative has to invent the threat of violence to justify no longer facing her constituents.
A tele-town hall? Welcome to the 21st C in WY.
I had the same issue. Only I’m in Goshen County. It’s quite frustrating. Where’s the transparency?
So, are you Wyoming voters going to keep voting for the boot lickers?
Hageman has shown to be a self server, narcissist and a liar. Of course she blocked anyone who’d present the hard questions. Since Hageman is obviously going to take the MAGA approach by shying away from face to face town halls, she is also a coward. What has happened to our GOP? What kind of people have we put into power? The stock market crashed 1,500 points this a.m. because of the Orange Chump and his goose stepping followers, causing some 401k’s to be seriously depleted. Thanks Harriet for “having our backs”
I signed up and sent a question but didn’t receive an email w sign in instructions.
I submitted my information online, as well as a respectful question for Rep. Hageman. I stayed home and waited for either a call or email. No call, no email…not even in my junk mail. In addition, I reached out to Rep. Hageman on her FB page asking if there was a recording of the Town Hall I could listen to because I was never invited to join the Town Hall, and submitted my question in the comments section. No response whatsoever.
If the screaming, insulting mob would just grow up and act like adults, we could have an honest conversation. It seems Wyoming Dems are no different than Dems across the US. Throwing temper tantrums and screaming insults.
So if they don’t agree with her they are a “Mob”, but if they agree with her and shout down others trying to ask questions it’s OK????
When will you people admit that hageman is a coward and a liar?
Oh, you got me. I thought for a minute that you were referring to the J6 tourists.
It was a beautiful day of love, as Junior President Trump calls J6. He’s considering reparations for all those arrested for attacking police. But being loud in the presence of Mrs. Doubtfire is unseemly?
I must be technologically ignorant, I don’t see any reason why people had to sign up for her tele town hall. Since listeners were not allowed to speak why wasn’t the information that was needed to connect published well ahead of time allowing everyone the opportunity to listen in if they were interested.
As an IT Professional, this is exactly what the representative did. There is no technical reasoning to complete forms that provide personal information, sensitive personal information. A town hall is where the mic is passed around between the constituents, who have a question regarding the “in-the-moment” presentation or a followup to another individuals input. What they did was control the script. Control the questioning. Control the message.
It was not designed to allow the people to interfere with the per-defined agenda. This is not how a representative of the people, for the people responds to difficult questioning. This is THE elected official who has a responsibility to listen to each and every voter without bias.
Bingo