In March of 2020, Tazle Markovich returned home to Casper after a two-year stint in Ecuador working as a community health volunteer through the Peace Corps. Back in Wyoming, Markovich started applying to medical school, getting one step closer to his dream of becoming a doctor.

Leaders of the Wyoming Legislature are recommending that the state provide better pay and benefits to lawmakers, hoping to ensure that a broad range of people are able to serve as senators and representatives.

The lawsuit against Wyoming’s criminal abortion ban is headed to the state Supreme Court, a judge ruled Wednesday, finding that questions concerning the constitutionality of a 2022 law banning most abortions in Wyoming had no existing legal precedent.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 61-36 to pass legislation enshrining federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, a rare bipartisan showing in which Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) joined 11 other Republicans and all Democrats in support of the bill. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), voted against the legislation, citing his longstanding opposition to same-sex unions.

WASHINGTON — In the 2020 election, Wyoming voters broke for former President Donald Trump by a greater margin than did Americans anywhere else in the country, 70-27.

A Wyoming legislature committee on Monday approved a bill that would establish a trust fund as a sustainable means of funding in-state 24/7 suicide lifeline coverage – a call to action many stakeholders in the mental health community have advocated as Wyoming reached a new record high suicide rate for 2021.

WASHINGTON — For former President Donald Trump, the results of Wyoming’s midterm elections stand as a rare triumph during an otherwise dismal showing.

CHEYENNE — Wyoming voters yesterday turned out overwhelmingly on behalf of Republican candidates in this year’s general election, with the conservative state again electing GOP candidates to lead all branches of state government. At the national level, the GOP appeared likely to regain narrow control of the U.S. House of Representatives; as of early Wednesday morning, control of the U.S. Senate remained undecided with key races still uncalled.

In less than 24 hours, Wyoming voters will go to the polls and decide who they want in the governor’s mansion for the next four years.

With just three days until the Nov. 8 general election, Wyoming’s incumbent Congresswoman and the woman poised to replace her are back on the campaign trail for candidates outside the state, each emerging as a key voice in the intra-party battle over the future of the GOP.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol formally issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump on Friday, setting up a likely legal showdown over Trump’s cooperation as he teases another presidential bid in 2024. In a TV appearance Sunday, committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she will “do whatever it takes” to ensure Trump “will not be the President of the United States again.”

Candidates seeking to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives next year met at Central Wyoming College in Riverton on Thursday night for a general election debate, but the focus was squarely on the one candidate not present: Harriet Hageman.

WASHINGTON — During the ninth and what is expected to be the final public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, panel members concluded their presentation of evidence with a unanimous vote: to issue a subpoena for documents and sworn testimony from former President Donald Trump.

In August, Wyoming Republicans again nominated Gov. Mark Gordon for governor, with the incumbent receiving nearly two-thirds of the vote in his campaign against GOP challengers Rex Rammell and Brent Bien.

Wyoming legislators will have a full plate when they return to the statehouse in January for a 40-day general session. As the Wyoming Truth previously detailed, lawmakers are exploring a number of major changes: expanding access to mental health services, helping alleviate home tax rates and addressing a budget crunch impacting public education.

Where the partisan divide comes from

The halls of Congress aren’t as hateful as you might think. I witnessed plenty of bipartisanship firsthand on Capitol Hill. Sen. Barrasso shared a laugh with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing when the chairman forgot to reconvene the meeting. I saw Republican and Democrat senators mingling on the Senate floor, exchanging smiles and pleasantries like old friends instead of political rivals. And outside the office, there’s the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity, a bipartisan tradition since 1909.

The entire U.S. Capitol was buzzing the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I was there for it. I stood at the window with my fellow staffers in the office of U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), watching protestors march up Constitution Avenue toward the Supreme Court Building on First Street. We closely monitored our emails, receiving instructions from U.S. Capitol Police who told us not to bring anyone, whether they were on official business or not, onto Capitol grounds. We were instructed to avoid the Supreme Court and keep our congressional badges concealed as we exited the Dirksen Senate Office Building, lest protestors become violent.

As 2022 winds to a close, Wyoming’s state legislators will soon return to work for a 40-day general session beginning Jan. 10, 2023. With the state budget approved through July of 2024 and legislative redistricting finalized earlier this spring, policymakers are honing in on which issues will top their priorities for next year.

WASHINGTON — Appearing just over two miles from one another before audiences convened at rival conservative think tanks on Monday evening, Wyoming’s current representative to the U.S. House and the woman set to replace her both delivered scathing indictments of the state of the American constitutional order.

On the evening of Aug. 16, while most politicos in Wyoming and nationwide were glued to their TVs watching Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)’s concession to Harriet Hageman, Lynnette Grey Bull was in the car with her kids.