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Statewide
By Jeannette Boner
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Two candidates for Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction, Republican Megan Degenfelder and Democrat Sergio Maldonado, will vie for the top state education seat on Nov. 8.
Degenfelder is six generations deep in Wyoming and graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming. She earned degrees in business economics and political science from the University of Wyoming. She served as the Chief Policy Offi cer at the Wyoming Department of Education under Superintendent Jillian Balow.
Degenfelder has focused her campaign empowering parents and vows to “fi ght back against anti-American curriculum and policies,” per her campaign page.
Maldonado was born on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation and is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Wyoming. In 2015, Maldonado served the State of Wyoming’s Offi ce of the Governor as the Tribal Liaison for the Northern Arapaho Tribe for two years. Maldonado has focused on early childhood education support and local control over curriculum and policy. The Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction is the head of the Department of Education. They are a nonvoting member of Wyoming Community College Commission, the University of Wyoming and the school facilities comMaldonado mission. The state super also serves on the State Building Commission, State Loan Board, State Board of Education and Investment Board.
Degenfelder
Contact Jeannette at schools@jhnewsandguide.com.
By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel
Incumbent Republican Governor Mark Gordon is running against Democrat Theresa Livingston and Libertarian Jared Baldes.
Gordon, 65, is concluding his fi rst four-year term as governor. He served as the state treasurer from 2012 through 2018, after being appointed to that position in 2012 by Gov. Matt Mead following the death of former state treasurer, Joe Meyer.
Gordon served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2008 to 2012.
Gordon touts his accomplishments over the last three and a half years as cutting state spending, keeping schools open during the pandemic, and fi ghting a ban from President Joe Biden ban on oil and gas leasing.
The Associated Press reported that Gordon’s right-wing credentials were bolstered by his urging the National Rifl e Association to move its headquarters from Virginia to Wyoming and signing a ban on most abortions that briefl y took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The ban is now on hold pending a lawsuit fi led in Teton County.
Theresa Livingston, 72, is a Worland Democrat. Before retiring she spent nine years in the Air Force and 15 years at the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, and then as a special education teacher.
Livingston lists her top priorities online as women’s rights, Medicare expansion, mental health care and bolstering Wyoming’s economy.
Contact Sophia Boyd-Fliegel at county@ jhnewsandguide or 307-732-7063.
By Billy Arnold
Two candidates are vying to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in the U.S. House of Representatives: Republican Harriet Hageman and Democrat Lynnette Grey Bull.
Hageman, a natural resources attorney from Fort Laramie, beat Cheney in the August Republican primary, ousting the three-term congresswoman after Cheney voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cheney also serves on the Jan. 6 committee. Wyoming Republicans widely repudiated Cheney for both actions, and Hageman rode that wave to a roughly 40-point victory in the primary.
After calling the 2020 election “rigged,” Hageman has since engaged in a tit-for-tat with Wyoming attorneys who have called on her to stop spreading election misinformation. Hageman has called that a “threat” and an attack on her fi rst amendment rights.
Grey Bull, meanwhile, aims to be the fi rst Wyoming Democrat elected to Congress in 44 years. She’s not fazed by the odds, pledging to campaign in all of Wyoming’s 23 counties. Recently, she publicly sought Cheney’s endorsement against Hageman. Grey Bull, a member of the Northern Arapaho and Standing Rock Sioux tribes, said she ran for Congress in 2020 against Cheney to amplify the mission of Not Our Native Daughters, a nonprof-Grey Bull it she runs and organizes that aims to educate people about missing and murdered Indigenous women.
This time, she has said she’s running to win.
Hageman
Contact Billy Arnold at 732-7063 or barnold@ jhnewsandguide.com.
ELECT A DUERR
Values: Faith ,Family ,Community ,Conservation
• Steadfast for Teton County
37 years as engaged Volunteer & Leader: St. John’s hospice, Rotary, Community Entry Services, Curran-Seeley, Historical Society & Museum, Center for Global Affairs; pro bono lawyer (family law & housing issues); WY court appointed guardian for two disabled men; ED Chamber of Commerce and Murie Center (GTNP); General Counsel JH Ski Corp; member Teton County Planning Commission & elected member of School Board; Presently: top producing ranch real estate broker; board member WY Stock Growers Land Trust; 33rd year as General Counsel for Lower Valley Energy, your member-owned regional energy cooperative.
35 years of experience in organizing & representing stakeholders, writing bills & resolutions, lobbying & passing legislation.
• Effective Republican Leadership in Cheyenne
TETON COUNTY VOTERS – LET’S UNIFY AND WORK TOGETHER! For more information and to invest in OUR success on November 8th please visit steveduerrforsenate.com 307-699-4920 | steveduerrforsenate@gmail.com Thank you for your support!
