Sweetwater County Democratic Party chief Meghan Jensen is a concrete contractor, a former school cook and a soccer mom who views both leading Republican candidates for Congress as “elitists” who are out of touch with working class Wyoming.
Fremont County Native American activist Lynnette Grey Bull is seeking a second straight run as the Democratic Party nominee but encourages her supporters to “cross over” and vote for Republican Liz Cheney in the Aug. 16 primary.
Casper attorney Steve Helling supports former president Donald Trump but is running for Congress as a Democrat. He thinks Trump’s chosen candidate Harriet Hageman is a “hypocrite” because of earlier statements she made calling Trump a “racist” and a “xenophobe.” Trump has since apparently forgiven Hageman, but Helling has not.
In the face of the intense national scrutiny and the mountains of money surrounding the Aug. 16 Republican primary, it might be easy to forget that there will also be a Democratic primary on the same day. The high-profile GOP primary pits incumbent Liz Cheney against Hageman and three other challengers — Cheyenne state Senator Anthony Bouchard, Gillette native Denton Knapp and Sheridan small business owner Robyn Belinskey.
Up until the last day of the state filing period it was not clear that there would be a Democratic Party candidate for the state’s sole congressional seat.
In a state that once elected the likes of Democrats Gale McGee, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1977, and Ed Herschler, who served three terms as governor from 1975 to 1987, the party is at a low ebb.
According to the most recent state records, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by a 4-1 margin, 197,868 to 44,643. The last Democrat to win the U.S. House race in Wyoming was Teno Roncalio in 1976. The last close race for the seat was in 2006 when incumbent Republican Barbara Cubin — who was tainted by having the highest roll-call absenteeism rate in Congress — edged out Jackson’s Gary Trauner by just over 1,000 votes.
But just as officials were preparing to close the primary books on May 27, three Democratic candidates suddenly appeared. None are widely expected to successfully challenge the Republican nominee in the general election, but their candidacies could still impact the outcome in multiple ways, particularly if there is significant crossover voting.
Grey Bull
Lynnette Grey Bull, 45, is a social activist based in Fort Washakie, where she is cofounder of Not Our Native Daughters, a nonprofit organization aiming to increase awareness of “missing, exploited and murdered indigenous women and children.”
Raised in southern California, Grey Bull is the daughter of a Hunkpapa Lakota father and Northern Arapaho mother. Her family came to Wyoming often when she was a child to participate in pow-wows and dances. A divorced mother of three, Grey Bull moved to Wyoming in 2017 from Phoenix, Arizona where she had been active in the United Way and social welfare programs through her church, the evangelical Christian Vineyard Movement.
“The elders here in Wyoming invited me to help with homelessness and addiction issues here on the reservation,” Grey Bull said. By 2020, she was entrenched enough in the community to run for congress in the Democratic primary. She won the primary handily to become the state’s first Native American candidate for Congress, but lost to Liz Cheney in the general election by nearly 120,000 votes.
After consulting with friends and political advisors, she said she decided to run again in 2022, setting up a potential rematch. But this election, she acknowledges, is different because of the battle for survival it represents between Trump and his main Republican antagonist, Cheney.
“I think all eyes are on Wyoming because of the political dynamics involved,” she said. “From what I hear from other Democrats across the state before I got into the race, a huge number of Dems were going to support Cheney.”
“In fact, many of them are still going to vote for Cheney. Their viewpoint is ‘You know, Lynnette, we are going to vote for you in the general election, but we have to get Cheney in first.”
In fact, Grey Bull said, had she not decided to run, she too would likely have switched registration to vote for Cheney in the primary against the Trump candidate, Hageman. Grey Bull said she expects to “take a hit” from supporters crossing over to vote in the Republican primary but that she still hopes to get enough votes to win the Democratic primary and face off for a second time against Cheney in the general election.
“If I do get the Democratic nomination,” she said, “I would rather enjoy going against Cheney in the general.”
Jensen
Meghan Jensen, 38, is co-owner with her husband of a small concrete company in Rock Springs that specializes in installing residential driveways, RV pads and garage floors. It is hard work for the mother of a blended family with five children, including four stepchildren. In addition to helping her husband pour concrete she serves on the Sweetwater County Library board and, since 2018, as chairperson of the Sweetwater County Democratic Party.
Jensen disagrees with Grey Bull about the significance of the potential Democrat crossover vote in the Republican Primary.
“Talking to folks in my county and a few outside of my county,” Jensen said, “I’ve had people tell me they actually changed their registration. But after sitting on it for two or three weeks they said ‘I can’t do it. I can’t keep registered as a Republican. I’m going to switch back to the Democrats.”
Like Grey Bull, Jensen admires Cheney for taking what she feels is a principled stand against Trump. “I call her a formidable foe,” she said, dodging potato chips thrown at her by one of her children. “As a Wyoming woman I connect with her because she does take a stand in what she believes in. And while that may not be right for me, I do admire her for that.”
Jensen feels the problems in Wyoming go beyond the issue of Trump. She said her primary campaign will be called “Face it” and serve as a kind of wakeup call for the state’s electorate.
“I think Wyoming has been going this way for a long time and it is coming to a head. So, it doesn’t really need to put Trump in the equation. It is really a Wyoming problem. We need to find a bridge between the regular folk and the federal government.”
Unlike Grey Bull, Jensen said that she could never bring herself to vote for Cheney, even in a primary.
“That’s an absolute ‘No,’” she said. “I’m very, very firm in that.”
Helling
Steve Helling, 68, is a civil litigation attorney specializing in truck accident cases who has lived in Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs, Green River and Casper. A former deputy prosecutor in Sweetwater County, Helling moved back to Wyoming in March after 20 years in Colorado Springs where he practiced law and helped care for his ailing mother, who has since died. But Helling, a graduate of the University of Wyoming law school, stresses that his real home is in Wyoming, where several of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren now live. “Prior to moving to Colorado, I lived 24 years in Wyoming, including 16 years in Casper.”
Over the years, Helling said, he has been a registered Democrat and Republican as well as an independent.
“I’ve tried to make it clear that I don’t have strong party loyalties,” Helling said. “In the spirit of full transparency, I actually contemplated doing this as a Republican, but President Trump had asked the Republican field to coalesce around his selection, Ms. Hageman, so that would have been in direct conflict.”
Instead, Helling chose to run as a last-minute, pro-Trump candidate in the Democratic primary. “There are radical left-wing forces within the Democratic Party that need to be challenged from within the Democratic Party,” Helling said.
Helling said he does not support the former president on every issue. A journalism graduate of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, he does not agree with Trump’s blanket condemnation of the media as “fake news.” And unlike Trump, he supports same-day registration at the polling place that allows “crossover” voting.
But he thinks Trump did a “fantastic job” in his one term as president. He dismisses the January 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol as “a peaceful protest that got out of hand” and agrees with those who contend the 2020 election may have been stolen through massive voter fraud.
However, Helling said he cannot support Trump’s hand-picked candidate Hageman, whom he describes as a hypocrite for positions she took against Trump before the 2016 election, when the Wyoming delegation supported Ted Cruz.
“If there is one thing I can’t stand, it is hypocrisy,” Helling said. “She attacked President Trump right before he was elected. She tried to keep him from getting the nomination that he had earned. She called him a racist. She called him a xenophobe.”
It is unclear how the Wyoming Democratic leadership will react to Helling’s candidacy when it holds its convention this weekend, June 11-12 in Rock Springs, although a party spokesman said it would likely be discussed. Helling said he has attempted unsuccessfully to reach party leaders. The specter of having two pro-Trump candidates — Helling and, were she to win, Hageman — facing off in the general election may be more than they can handle.
However, Helling looks to his wife Kathy Helling’s experience as a precedent for a maverick, little-known candidate winning the Democratic nomination.
As a 32-year-old college undergraduate running as an anti-abortion Democrat, Kathy Helling came from nowhere to win the 1990 Democratic primary and face off against incumbent Republican icon Alan Simpson for the United States Senate. Steve Helling was her campaign treasurer in that race. She lost by a lopsided margin in the general election but was able to use her nomination to promote her views on abortion in a statewide televised debate with Simpson.
Given the sparse turnout for Democratic Party primaries (Grey Bull won the 2020 primary with 14,153 out of a meager 23,576 votes), anything is possible, although Steve Helling admits he is a long shot.
“I think God would have to place me in Washington, D.C.,” Helling said. “I think my chances are slim. However, I think my chances as a Democrat would be much greater than a Democratic candidate who hewed the leftist line.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the first names of Gale McGee and Teno Roncalio and to clarify the composition of Jensen’s family. —Ed.
i hope the democrats will leave the line open & let cheney win as an independent.
I love free speech and civil discussion. I do not like the direction America is headed and I hope we will remain engaged. Our country is worth it. The Wyoming Democratic Party has been civil to me to this point. I attended the morning session of the Wyoming State Democratic Convention and had a cordial discussion with the State Democratic Chair, Joe Barbuto. In his opening comments he discussed problems within the Wyoming Republican Party and issues involving the Republican Party Chair, Frank Eathorne. Mr. Barbuto stated it was not easy being a Democrat in Wyoming but it was the right thing to do. In looking at the internal fighting within the Republican Party and the past and present issues facing the Wyoming Chair, I understood where Mr. Barbuto was coming from. I think both parties have issues. In the past, I considered the Democratic Party to be the more compassionate party, fighting for the little guy. I spent nine years on the board of an organization that provided legal services to the poor. The majority of my life I have been a registered Democrat and I do not want to be silenced. I think President Trump did a good job. I liked the energy independence, low inflation, and border control we experienced with President Trump. I am concerned about socialism infiltrating the Democratic Party. Wyoming has a chance to get national attention by nominating a pro-Trump candidate. I do not expect the Democratic Party to make me their Chair, but I view the fact I have been allowed to express dissenting opinions while being treated cordially is very positive and a credit to the Wyoming Democratic Party. I hope it will continue. I will be starting a Twitter account on July 4 and hopefully there can be real discussions about the issues. I respect respectful dissenting opinions, even when they are directed at me. May God Bless America Again! Steve Helling
Cheney is a Nasty Nancy recruit and has no place in the Republican Party. She is as vindictive and corrupt as her daddy . The both are self serving and care nothing about Wyoming except to extract as much money as possible for themselves and to HELL with the voters of Wyoming. Cheney needs to go and hold Nancy Pelosi’s hand and leave Wyoming alone.
Which ever one of these Dems win, that should not have a problem, WINNING, the set, time we get a Dem back in there, It keeps the other side, straighter, Good Luck to you.
So crossover voting, isn’t that just another way to CHEAT! It is just wrong in so many ways. How can it be moral? The people that do it are the lowest scum of the earth.
Many would say the same thing about people who still believe in the “stolen” election nonsense.
It’s called representative governance, you can pick whatever party and candidate you want to represent you whenever.
LOL and the GOP swears it isn’t a cult…
Wyoming lawmakers are mostly a bunch of old white haired men who have no concept of how the world operates outside of their power bubble. So this white haired old woman says, move over, ALL of you old legislators and give Wyoming a chance for younger, more informed and better prepared individuals (hopefully women) to set the course for the people who deserve better than the dried out prunes who can’t find their way out of a paper bag. Read the book “The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For” by Charlotte Alter. It’s time to support a different generation.
Helling ran in hopes no Democrat would run. He is clearly a republican that has been watching Fox News too long and living in the right wing bubble of Colorado Springs. Trump organized an attempted coup based on a Big Lie and those that deny that fact are unfit for office.
Crossover voting should not be illegal unless we make political parties illegal. Citizens have every right to vote in any primary and for any person they think will work for their ideals or against a monster that will not. Making crossover voting illegal is authoritarian and frankly ridiculous.
I will never vote for a pro Trump anything! It clear Mr Helling does not give a Rat’s rear end about the Constitution or it’s laws. Then to add insult to injury to run as a Democrat demonstrates that the man is a opportunist on a magnitude I thought not possible! Sorry, but if you get a single vote then the mental state of anyone who would vote for a wolf in the henhouse has to come into play! As a election judge in three state over the past several decade it is clear the Big Lie has been the most direct assault on our Voting Institution in this country with it’s destructive poisonous results that have resulted. Mr Helling your Brown Shirt attempt at subverting Democrats in this state is now over! Evil persist when persons of good will do nothing! This I will not allow!
Fascinating! Hopefully these candidates, especially Helling, as well as all voters, will pay attention to what is promised to be eyepopping and totally dismaying and disheartening revelations that the January 6 committee, on which Cheney is one of two Repunlicans, are going to tell us about Trump and those events.
Cross over voting is cheating, pure and simple. You can’t justify it any other way. It is what it is. And someone calling another a hypocrite when that person has registered as a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent….well that speaks for itself now doesn’t it.
Scared much?
Your comment makes no sense whatsoever.
How can it be cheating when it’s legal?
You obviously just want only Republican voices to be heard in this state.
Sad.
Disagree!!!!! As a citizen of WY it is my right to support the candidate who I feel is the most honest, has the most INTEGRITY, and will support the constitution. Party has no relevance as far as I’m concerned. Party politics is ruining our country. Get the lobbyists out, get the money out, and let’s get back to a country that’s on an honest and upright path. Anyone who condones what is happening with republicans needs to go back to civics class.
Good to make people to think.
How can Steve Helling run for any office in Wyoming? Don’t you have to have resided in the state, and in the district you are seeking to represent, for a year? I wouldn’t vote for anybody who believes the election was stolen.
One-party rule is unhealthy for democracy. In San Francisco, as published in The Economist this morning, a similar scenario is playing out with the Democrats. ” This election has wider lessons. First, it highlights the conflict within the Democratic Party that hampers functional government. In San Francisco Democrats have unilateral control, but far-left progressives are butting heads with moderates, trying to cast them as closet Republicans. Recent redistricting conversations became “borderline violent”, says one observer. Sheriffs had to be called in. This reflects a degradation of discourse that is occurring not just between parties but within them.” When there is no effective opposition the dominant party begins to eat its own. As Bob Dylan has said ” they got a lot of forks ‘n’ knives And they gotta cut somethin’ “.