Dear Editor:

I attended the Wyoming Republican Party Convention held via Zoom on May 9. After reading an article posted by the Casper Star-Tribune and as a precinct committeewoman for Park County, I wanted to tell you my thoughts.

First, I’d like to say kudos to the leadership who put on the convention. In this day of pandemic, as we all expand our skills to incorporate speaking to groups on Zoom, they handled almost 500 people for 14 1/2 hours with kindness and respect. They did a phenomenal job.

That said, the participants did not act in like manner. Soon after the convention started, the credentialing committee recommended not seating Natrona County because they violated bylaws and a Wyoming statute in the election of their convention delegates. Much debate followed.

Those who agreed with the committee had the expectation that Natrona should have followed the bylaws as the 22 other counties did. Otherwise, why have bylaws?

For that belief, we were called totalitarian, fascist, and extremist. Where have you heard those three words before?

Usually from the other political party. Why are Republicans calling other Republicans those names? Maybe because they should be in the other party? The Star-Tribune reported Barbara Cubin calling our action shameful, compared it to the Soviet Politburo, and said it was antithetical to the principles our country was founded on. She said we were silencing and punishing them.

How? By making them follow the rules everyone else does? It is right and fair for an organization to hold all of its members accountable for upholding its rules. But we lost! Truth and fairness lost, 181-170. If you agree that rules should apply to everyone, please get involved in your local Republican Party. And please do it before you no longer recognize Wyoming’s Republican party.

Dona Becker

Powell