House to address top issues identified by Wyoming residents

Rep. Haroldson breaks down list of issues in the spotlight

Lisa Phelps
Posted 1/14/25

WHEATLAND – The 2025 legislature officially began Monday, and the new leadership has bold plans to steer Wyoming back to a more conservative standing overall. After the general election last …

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House to address top issues identified by Wyoming residents

Rep. Haroldson breaks down list of issues in the spotlight

Posted

WHEATLAND – The 2025 legislature officially began Monday, and the new leadership has bold plans to steer Wyoming back to a more conservative standing overall.
After the general election last fall, the people of Wyoming voted to elect a number of more conservative republicans into office, which paved the way for the freedom caucus element of the republican party to gain control of the lawmaking body. Platte County’s representative Jeremy Haroldson was also elected to another term in house district 4 and, having demonstrated a strength in leadership since first elected in 2021, was elected speaker pro-tempore for the 2025-2026 legislative session. He is also on the management council, rules and procedures, and appropriations committees.
As explained by Haroldson in an interview last week, the Freedom Caucus leadership utilized U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s pollster (with funding by private donors) to conduct an extensive poll asking the people of Wyoming what they think are the most important issues that need to be addressed legislatively in Wyoming. As a direct result of the poll of voters two lists were put together to address the identified priorities.
In an effort to cut to the chase in a 37-day legislative session, the Wyoming House of Representatives plans to begin immediately after the session begins to mark off a checklist, dubbed “Five and Dime,” of the top five issues listed as priorities by Wyomingites.
Haroldson explained, there is a goal of passing bills addressing those five issues in the first ten days of the session: requiring proof of Wyoming residency and US citizenship when registering to vote, invalidate in the state any driver’s licenses issued by other jurisdictions to illegal immigrants, prohibit DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in higher education, banning ESG (environmental and social governance) in investments by the State of Wyoming, and cutting property taxes.
“Those five bills in the first 10 days are guaranteed to address these issues,” Haroldson said.
The second list stemming from the poll of voters is what the leadership is calling “20/20 Vision.” They plan to pass another 20 bills in the first 20 days dealing with issues seen by Wyoming citizens as extremely important, specifically: repealing gun-free zones; banning sanctuary cities, ballot drop boxes, non-photo ID voting, and “Zuckerbucks” (banning nonprofits from directly contributing to elections); rid the state of obscenity statute exemptions which, Haroldson explained, allow librarians and teachers to show pornography to the state’s youth; eminent domain reform; put in a vote board in the house and senate chambers (to keep track of voting visually in addition to the current audio recording of yea or nay votes on the floor); address anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) rules; medical conscience protections; parental rights in education; universal school choice; an amendment of the women’s sports bill to extend to college athletics; and age verification for online pornography websites. On a list of the house’s other priorities shared by Haroldson are the prohibition of DEI in all of state government, criminalizing ballot harvesting, identifying “what is a woman,” CDC/WHO jurisdiction limitations, limit governor’s authority to invoke public health emergency, administrative procedure act reforms, for the people act, religious freedom restoration act, and more.

“There are a whole lot of other priorities, but these are also issues we also campaigned on,” Haroldson said. “What you ask for is important, and this is what we are going to address... it is not crazy or extreme, but simply fundamental republican values.”
He explained, for instance, there is a case in Casper where a young girl had a biological male walk in on her while she was using a public restroom. “I don’t know a single red-blooded American that doesn’t have a problem with that. If you are too confused to go the bathroom of your biological gender, then you will have to go out of your way to find a family restroom or something,” Haroldson said as an example of incidents which have prompted at least a portion of the bills and amendments to be addressed by the legislature.
He also said the legislature will seek to address why the University of Wyoming girls’ volleyball team had to forfeit two games this season. “Those girls shouldn’t have to play against a man.”
Haroldson added, preventing pornography and protecting kids is a common-sense thing the legislature will be addressing this session while at the same time keeping a priority of protecting the rights of free speech. “We have freedom of speech, but not the freedom to harm others,” he emphasized.
Another way congressional leadership is seeking to direct Wyoming back into a more conservative standing is in a challenge they gave to freshmen legislatures to “come up with two repealers before the session begins,” Haroldson said. “We want to shrink the green books (the official list of currently valid Wyoming State Statutes).”
He explained, there are some laws that need to be removed, such as the law that states it is illegal to idol on public roadways, which was enacted when cars used leaded gasoline and it was purported to make people sick. “Leaded gasoline is a thing of the past – we are obviously not there anymore. There are also antiquated vaccine laws that need to be repealed… We want to create a culture [in the legislature] where every bill that is passed, we need to shrink the green books by one.”
Platte County and its rural communities will also have a strong voice in how state money is spent since both district 6 senator Darin Smith and district 4 representative Haroldson have been appointed to their respective appropriations committees.
Sen. Smith said he is looking forward to Platte County and rural Laramie County having a strong representation on the appropriations committees of both the house and senate this session.
“I like the fact I represent rural Wyoming. We’ve not always had as much representation for the farming and ranching community [on the appropriations committee,]” Haroldson concurred, adding, typically the larger cities like Cheyenne, Casper, Rawlins or Gillette have a stronger influence in state spending.
“We’re both constitutionally minded on what the roll of government should be,” Haroldson said. “I’m all for funding the government, but not outside aspects of our purview. We have the ability to do a good job to meet the needs of Wyoming.”
The official start of the legislature was Tuesday, Jan. 14 with the swearing in of new members, followed by the state of the state address on Wednesday. Committees are scheduled to meet on Thursday to begin hashing out individual committee bills.
Anyone wanting to communicate with either Smith and Haroldson can contact them via email or phone. Haroldson can be reached at 331-2310 or Jeremy.Haroldson@wyoleg.gov; Smith can be contacted at 421-8081 or Darin.Smith@wyoleg.gov.
Haroldson encouraged people to go to gowyoleg.gov to see the bills being discussed and their progress through the legislature, and also to the Wyoming Legislature’s YouTube page to watch videos of committee meetings and discussions on the floor.
“Please communicate with us and be a part of the solution,” he concluded.