My record

In 2024, the legislature attempted to repeal the Gun Free Zones law. The theory advanced for the repeal was that gun free zones create "soft targets" that are open invitations for malevolent actors to enter and attack. I argued strenuously against the repeal, on the basis that if a would-be school shooter isn't deterred by the certainty that he will be quickly met by heavily armed police officers in protective gear and using radios to hunt him down, he is certainly not going to be deterred by the mere possibility that somebody inside the school may be carrying a concealed handgun. You can watch my floor speech on this point at https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=OA1brRNsiY8 (Scroll to 1:40:09 to find the start of my speech).

Since the Supreme Court's Citiizens United decision in 2010, I have been actively fighting to rid our political system of dark money. Gigantic expenditures by large donors, corporations and SuperPACs have drowned out the voices of ordinary voters, who don't have thousands of dollars (much less the millions of dollars that large donors have) to spend on campaign contributions. As a founding member and chair  of the nonprofit organization Wyoming Promise before I was elected to office, I have been working to get the Wyoming legislature to call on Congress to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring, once and for all, that money is not speech, corporations are not people, and the voices of ordinary citizens should be the only thing that elected officials listen to.

In 2026, the Joint Appropriations Committee (controlled by the Freedom Caucus) proposed a $40 million cut to the main budget of the University of Wyoming, along with $21 million of other, specific cuts. The Freedom Caucus justified the cut to the block grant on the claim that the University of Wyoming had not properly responded to a budget footnote in the previous year's supplemental budget to eliminate many programs and courses dealing with diversity, equity and inclusion. "We need to get their attention," the Caucus claimed. I led the fight on the House floor to restore the $40 million cut. You can watch my floor speech on this issue at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr2rgdM2B6c&t=4214s (scroll to 1:10:15 to find the start of my speech).

The federal government has a supplemental food program to provide needy families with food assistance for children during summer months when schools are out and the school lunch programs are unavailable. Called the SunBucks program, families who qualify for aid can receive debit cards that work like the existing SNAP benefits cards. Wyoming is one of only about a dozen states that does not participate in this program. Since 2024, I have been leading the effort to implement the SunBucks program in Wyoming. To hear just one of the many floor speeches I have made advocating for this program, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcotCvC9O-8&t=31s (scroll to 1:12:30 to find the start of my speech).

Every year I have been in the legislature, members of the so-called Freedom Caucus have advanced bills that actually limit the freedom of women to control their own bodies and their own lives. I have voted against every one of those bills, and have made many floor speeches opposing those bills.

One of the first bills they brought, and I fought against, was the Life is a Human Right Act, adopted in 2023 (and later struck down by the Wyoming Supreme Court as violating Article I, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution). To hear just one of the many floor speeches I have made in defense of reproductive health freedom, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynn-N0JNa48 (scroll to 2:26:51 to find the start of my speech).

Public libraries are under attack. Far-right legislators have attempted (and thus far failed) to enact bills requiring public and school libraries to reshelve or entirely remove materials they deem offensive. The books they seek to restrict access to, or outright ban, tend to be books dealing with coming-of-age issues for younger readers. Books dealing with sex education, gender identity issues, navigating puberty and similar topics tend to be on the "hit list" of these far-right activists.

In 2025 I led the fight in the Joint Judiciary Committee to amend, or defeat, one such bill. I gave numerous speeches in both the Joint and House Judiciary committees and on the House floor against House Bill 10, Sexually Explicit Materials in Libraries. Watch the Joint Judiciary Committee hearing on this bill in the summer of 2025, where I asked many questions of the witnesses who testified about this bill, at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHs4iqNGfxY&t=13710s (scroll to 3:48:30 for the start of the public testimony on the bill).