CHEYENNE — The August primary election is less than a week away, and candidates in House Districts 41, 42 and 43 answered questions on key issues trending in Wyoming.
All quotes in this story were received from candidates via email to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Constituents can vote now through Tuesday.
House District 41
The HD 41 race is between incumbent Rep. Bill Henderson, R-Cheyenne, and Republican challenger Gary Brown. Jen Solis is the sole Democratic candidate filed in this race and will face the winner of the Republican primary in the general election in November.
Bill Henderson
Age: 75
Work experience: Development executive in Cheyenne market for FirsTier Bank, 26 years enlisted and commissioned officer service with U.S. Navy, CFO/comptroller, quality engineer and regulatory affairs medical device manufacturing, and manager quality and processes in the northern region for Union Pacific
Education: Cheyenne’s East High School; Laramie County Community College; B.S. in Economics and MPA, University of Wyoming; MBA, Webster University
Prior elected experience: State representative, HD 41, 2017-present
Caucus preference: ”I support people who bring thoughtful, Wyoming-focused solutions with a reasonable, respectful, civil voice working together to protect our Wyoming values and to help move Wyoming forward.
“Why would you support use of an authoritarian, self-serving, control-focused agenda — waiting to be told by text from outside Wyoming how to vote? That’s not our Wyoming.”
Issues:
Property taxes
To Henderson, it is crucial to balance property tax relief with maintaining local services funded by these taxes. He said he has supported ongoing tax reform and has backed several relief bills, including a proposed constitutional amendment for fair property valuation.
In Wyoming, people who fall behind on property tax payments have a five-year period to pay it off before a tax deed sale. Most of these sales involve elderly or incarcerated individuals. With high inflation and living costs, Henderson said it’s vital to monitor and adjust tax policies to ensure fairness and support for homeowners.
Parental rights
Henderson said there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this issue. Rather, it is more important to empower locally elected school boards, parents and schools to make the decisions they believe are best for their students.
In the last legislative session, Henderson backed HB 2, which he said protects parental rights by ensuring that school districts communicate with parents about their children to respect parental authority while aiming to prevent exacerbating teacher shortages.
Energy
Henderson said he’s focused on protecting Wyoming’s core industries, like coal, oil, natural gas, agriculture and tourism, while also pursuing opportunities to develop clean power technologies like solar, wind and nuclear energy.
“Permitting reform is urgently needed to reduce overregulation, improve cost of production, project completion and help lower cost of distribution and consumer cost, too,” he said.
He also said carbon-based components can be repurposed and used as feedstock to generate energy options, which, in turn, could improve end user cost. Henderson said he hopes this could positively impact the cost of housing in Wyoming, as well.
Additional issues
Other key issues Henderson is working on for the next session include: ending domestic and senior abuse; protecting homeowners from predatory, illegal property liens; maintaining a safe community; foreign ownership of property near critical infrastructure; review of gaming sector statutes and needed updates; ensuring facility maintenance is funded, scheduled and completed; and improving public transportation options for seniors, fixed income, special needs and vulnerable community residents.
(Gary Brown did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the WTE.)
House District 42
The race for the HD 42 seat is between incumbent Rep. Ben Hornok, R-Cheyenne, and Cheyenne Republican challenger Rob Geringer. Bob Ray of Cheyenne is the sole Democratic challenger in this race who will face the winner of the Republican primary in the November general election.
Rob Geringer
Age: 51
Work experience: Business owner
Education: Bachelor of Civil Engineering, University of Wyoming; Master of Engineering, University of Colorado-Denver
Prior elected experience: None
Caucus preference: “I’m not aligned with a caucus. I am a conservative Republican who believes in thinking for myself, making decisions rooted in Wyoming values and not taking marching orders from a caucus.”
Issues:
Property taxes
“There is still more that can be done to ease the burden, whether it’s rolling back to previous assessed values, permanently fixing the max percentage the assessment can increase or some other solution. Regardless, since the property tax funds our schools, fire protection, law enforcement and other services we expect, we have to be careful of the impacts,” he said.
Parental control
Geringer said parents should have the ultimate say in their children’s education, and that we need to ensure that the education system respects family values and parental authority.
“Book ban policies in our local schools are a complex issue. It is essential to protect our children from inappropriate content, while also being careful that we’re not stifling intellectual freedom,” he said.
Energy
“My focus will be on protecting our industries while also encouraging the responsible development of new solutions that benefit all Wyomingites,” Geringer said.
He said the coal, oil and natural gas industries have been the backbone of Wyoming’s economy and will continue to play a crucial role in the state’s prosperity that he will fight to protect from federal overreach. When considering diversifying the energy sector, he said it is important to consider the impact on Wyoming’s people and economy.
“Wyoming is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the development of energy technologies that can complement our core industries, creating a more resilient and sustainable future for our state,” he said.
Additional issues
Geringer said it is important to diversify Wyoming’s economy by removing hurdles and regulations for existing businesses to promote expansion, continuing to create a friendly business environment to attract new industry and promoting the research being done to create new products from existing resources.
Ben Hornok
Age: 49
Work experience: General contractor
Education: Salt Lake Community College, Construction Management; Frontier School of the Bible, Theology and Biblical Studies
Prior elected experience: Wyoming Legislature, 2023-present; precinct committee member
Caucus preference: ”I am pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-family, pro-private property rights, and I support lower taxes, Wyoming sovereignty, limited government, government transparency, responsible government spending, reduced regulations, border security and election integrity. If re-elected, I will continue to stand on these principles, regardless of the dynamics of the Legislature, because these principles are what I promise my constituents I will defend.”
Issues:
Property tax
Hornok said he voted in favor of every opportunity to expand the tax relief in each bill he worked with this year. He added that the state can afford this tax relief because the state budget ballooned by around $2.5 billion above what is needed to fully fund government services.
“It is possible to provide meaningful tax relief and reform and still fully fund government services, but it will require a responsible government spending strategy,” he said.
Parental control
“Children should never have access to sexually explicit materials, especially not in publicly funded schools. I will continue to bring my bill removing the exemption in the obscenity law for teachers and librarians, which essentially has opened the door for this terrible material,” he said.
Hornok said schools should focus on true history and facts, rather than social indoctrination, and that it should be up to the parents to educate their children on social issues.
Energy
Hornok said Wyoming has enough organic fuel in the ground to power America for multiple lifetimes and that he will work to fight any attack on those industries by enforcing state sovereignty, rather than deferring control to the federal government or the loudest activist.
“Carbon dioxide actually feeds our planet, so Wyoming does not need to be focused on going ‘carbon negative.’ Alternative energy sources can be explored, but we should not be propping them up with taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Additional issues
Hornok said one of his top priorities is ensuring responsible government spending through audits.
“Reduced regulations and cutting taxes will help solve housing problems, medical care access and economic shortfalls,” he said. “If we can ensure Wyoming is the conservative state that the rest of the nation thinks it is, we will attract businesses and the individuals that are needed for the workforce. We must protect Wyoming from the negative effects of illegal immigration before we become overwhelmed. I don’t want to see Wyoming go the way everyone else is; if we lose Wyoming, what do we have left?”
House District 43
The HD 43 race is between incumbent Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, and Republican challenger Ann Lucas. There are no Democratic challengers in this race. Unless there is a Democratic write-in candidate, the winner of this primary election will be the sole name on the ballot for this race in the November general election.
Ann Lucas
Age: 64
Work experience: 40 years in credit unions and banks, last 30 in managerial and executive level; several years as an internal auditor and regulatory compliance; tax professional for several years
Education: B.S. in Business Management, minor in Accounting
Prior elected experience: Central Committee Member for Laramie County GOP, Precinct 4-8
Caucus preference: ”I have made no secret of my conservative values. I have been a Christian conservative longer than the Wyoming Freedom Caucus has existed. I support the Laramie County Republican Party platform, which mirrors the Wyoming Republican Party platform.”
Issues:
Property taxes
Lucas said she believes taxes are increasing faster than the cost of government services.
She said government spending should be handled like it is in the financial world, where banks’ expenses and income are “scrutinized and reported to the stakeholders,” stating that current government spending is not understood or audited sufficiently.
Parental rights
Lucas said that local control is parental control, and parents are the authority for all things regarding their children. She said organizations from outside Wyoming have been documented attempting to usurp this role and influence children without the parents’ consent.
She said that inappropriate materials should be isolated in restricted sections, and parents cannot opt out of materials available to their children if they are unaware of what material is available. If parents want their children to access more materials, she said they can do that through the public library, not the school library.
Energy
“Federal mandates and subsidies have distorted the market. Corporations from outside Wyoming are demanding that we change our energy production to fit a political agenda. This is not the appropriate role of the federal government. These resources are needed, all over the world.”
She said that when the federal government oversteps, state government must protect Wyoming citizens’ rights.
Additional issues
Lucas supports transparency in legislative voting and said she would support electronic voting to make every vote more expedient and recorded.
“I will never sign a nondisclosure agreement with any corporations from outside Wyoming,” she said.
Dan Zwonitzer
Age: 44
Work experience: Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, LCCC political science adjunct instructor
Education: Cheyenne’s East High School; two B.A. degrees from Georgetown University; MBA and MA in Political Science, University of Wyoming
Prior elected experience: Wyoming Legislature, 2005-present
Caucus preference: ”Wyoming must stop the Freedom Caucus and return to civil debate, thorough idea and policy discussions, and focus on actual threats to our economy and livelihoods, not the four social wedge issues the Freedom Caucus brings daily to the Legislature. The Freedom Caucus tries to keep everyone angry; people make bad decisions when they’re angry.”
Issues:
Property taxes
“The Legislature did more in 2024 than any time in our history to address rising property taxes, and we’re not done,” Zwonitzer said.
He said to expect to see the tax cap extended to land and structures in 2025, as well as a multitude of initiatives after the constitutional amendment passes in November.
“We must ensure we are meeting actual needs and not becoming socialists with redistributing wealth or offering tax relief to millionaires moving into Wyoming, which will hurt us in the long run by pushing assessments up,” Zwonitzer said.
Parental rights
Zwonitzer said this issue should be addressed through local control.
“I trust our elected school board members to make the right decisions for their communities on parental involvement, education offerings and keeping kids safe from violence. We must trust those elected at the local level and quit passing confusing and conflicting statewide mandates, which are doing more harm than good to students, parents, school boards and teachers,” he said.
Energy
Zwonitzer said Wyoming needs to continue with an all-energy sources strategy, relying on legacy industries while also pursuing innovative technologies like carbon capture, utilization and storage as a way to ensure continued revenues from minerals that sustain the Wyoming economy.
He also noted that Wyomingites should be cautiously excited about small modular nuclear facilities and fully explore its risks.
Additional issues
“I pride myself on understanding and helping solve the really complex legislative issues affecting businesses — telecom, insurance, corporations, regulatory health care and mineral valuation statutes. There are very few longer-serving legislators to handle these areas of the law, so I focus my energies on ensuring Wyoming is safeguarded on the technical stuff not often covered in the press,” he said.
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