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Wyoming Democratic Party

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Wyoming Democratic Party
ChairpersonJoe Barbuto
Senate Minority LeaderChris Rothfuss
House Minority LeaderMike Yin
HeadquartersCheyenne, Wyoming
Membership (2021)Increase49,336[1]
IdeologyModern liberalism
National affiliationDemocratic Party
ColorsBlue
Wyoming Senate
2 / 31
Wyoming House of Representatives
5 / 62
U.S. Senate
0 / 2
U.S. House of Representatives
0 / 1
Statewide Executive Offices
0 / 5
Website
www.wyodems.org

The Wyoming Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in Wyoming, headquartered in Cheyenne. The party was strong during Wyoming's territorial days, but suffered a decline in its early statehood. It rose to prominence again from the 1930s to the 1950s before experiencing another decline.

The party is led by Chris Rothfuss in the state senate and Mike Yin in the state house. The party currently has very weak electoral power in the state, and is one of the weakest affiliates of the national Democratic Party. It currently controls none of Wyoming's statewide and/or federal elected offices and very few seats in the Wyoming Legislature.

History

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Members of the Wyoming delegation at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

On September 2, 1869, Wyoming held its first territorial elections and the Democratic party won in a landslide winning all nine seats in the Council and all twelve seats in the House of Representatives.[2] In 1889, the party selected fifteen delegates to the Wyoming constitutional convention to draft its constitution to be submitted for statehood that included Henry S. Elliott, George W. Baxter, Anthony C. Campbell, Henry A. Coffeen, William C. Irvine, James A. Johnston, Edward J. Morris, John M. McCandlish, Caleb P. Organ, Louis J. Palmer, John L. Russell, Charles H. Burritt, Douglas A. Preston, Thomas R. Reid, and Noyes Baldwin.[3]

In the 1920 elections the party was defeated in a landslide by the Republicans with Warren G. Harding flipping the state in the presidential election after gaining 22.29% from Charles Evans Hughes' performance in 1916, losing seven of their ten senate seats, and losing ten of their eleven house seats with Thurman Arnold of Albany county as the only Democratic member of the state house.[4] However, the party improved in the 1922 elections and gained twenty-two seats in the state house.

In the 1934 elections the party won every statewide office for the only time in its history and took control of the state senate for the first time since statehood.[5] However, in the 1938 elections the party lost all three of the five statewide offices and lost control of both legislative chambers and since then has never held a majority in the state senate and only held a majority in the state house for four years.

In 1958, the Democrats regained control of the state house for the first time in twenty years.[6] The Democrats lost the state house in the 1960 election.[7]

On May 11, 1974, delegates to the party's state convention voted to add the impeachment of President Richard Nixon to the state party's platform.[8] In the 1984 state legislative elections the party lost seven seats in the House of Representatives due to Governor Edgar Herschler's unpopular decision to veto a homeowners tax credit program stating that it would subsidize homeowners who did not need it.[9]

Chuck Graves, who was then the party's chairman, criticized the Democratic National Committee for including Wyoming as a state that was too Republican and would be written off during the 1992 presidential election along with Nevada, Idaho, and Utah.[10]

During the 2002 elections the national party gave the party $25,000.[11] During the 2006 elections the national party conducted a fifty-state strategy under Chairman Howard Dean's leadership and invested large amounts of money in swing and red states. In 2005 the national committee started sending $10,000 per month for staff support and in 2006 it paid for field and communications directors and invested $100,000 into the party.[12] In the 2006 House election Gary Trauner was narrowly defeated by Representative Barbara Cubin and was the closest the party had come to winning Wyoming's federal House seat since Teno Roncalio won reelection in 1976.

During the 2020 election, the party reimagined its presidential preference caucus into the state's first ranked choice voting election. Initially planned as a hybrid in-person and mail-in caucus, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the party eventually shifted to mail-in only format.[13] Ultimately, the 2020 Wyoming Democratic caucus voter turnout was more than double than in 2016.[14]

Officials

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Congressional

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Past congressional officials

State officials

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Past statewide officials
Past state legislature officials
Past local officials

Leaders

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Past House Leaders
Other party officials

Electoral performance

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Presidential

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Electoral performance

Congressional

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Electoral performance

Gubernatorial

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Electoral performance

State legislature

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Electoral performance

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Although Grover Cleveland was the national presidential candidate his supporters in Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, and Wyoming fused with the Populist Weaver.
  2. ^ Although Adlai Stevenson I was the national presidential candidate his supporters in Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, and Wyoming fused with the Populist Fields.
  3. ^ special election
  4. ^ special election

References

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  1. ^ Winger, Richard. "March 2021 Ballot Access News Print Edition". Ballot Access News. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  2. ^ "John Campbell and the Invention of Wyoming". 15 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Wyoming Blue Book" (PDF).
  4. ^ "Only Democrat Named Tuesday Is From Albany". Casper Star-Tribune. 5 November 1920. p. 1. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Demos Win In Wyoming". Casper Star-Tribune. 7 November 1934. p. 5. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Trachsel 1959, p. 363-364.
  7. ^ Trachsel 1961, p. 384.
  8. ^ "Roncalio voted "yea."". Casper Star-Tribune. 12 May 1974. p. 9. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Ed Herschler's political legacy". Casper Star-Tribune. 6 February 1990. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Graves disputes Democratic shunning of Wyo". Casper Star-Tribune. 8 August 1991. p. 3. Archived from the original on 4 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Fundraising key for DNC chair". The Jackson Hole Guide. 28 August 2002. p. 3. Archived from the original on 4 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "The 50-state strategy". Casper Star-Tribune. 5 May 2013. p. 5. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Wyoming Dems cancel in-person portion of caucus because of COVID-19; mail-in ballots still accepted". Casper Star Tribune. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  14. ^ "Wyoming Democratic caucus turnout more than doubles 2016". Wyoming News Now. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  15. ^ "Legislative Branch".

Works cited

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