Dear editor:

Just as Mr. Vanata, in a previous letter to the editor, I take umbrage at Renee Tafoya, vice chair of Wyoming Rising (WR), saying that they are a nonpartisan group and that they don’t care what party affiliation someone is. She said that she assumes there are people from both parties involved with WR. She is forgetting, or purposely obfuscating, the fact that though Wyoming is touted as being a “Republican” state, our Wyoming Congress, until this year, has been majority Democrat, even though they didn’t carry a D behind their name but an R. When a person votes mostly with the Democrats, they might as well face the truth and be honest and say they are Democrats, as you can see in the 2024 session with Reps. David Northrup and Sandy Newsome, who were both elected as Republicans in this county but voted 90% of the time with Democrats according to WyoRino.com.

Though the U.S. has a two-party system, the reality in Wyoming is that almost everyone runs under the Republican name. So, it’s very safe and she’s not wrong to say that members from both parties are in her group. There are Democrats joining her group from the Democrat Party and there are Democrats joining her group from the Republican Party.

It’s with the “nonpartisan” bit that she is wrong. The information on their website lists issues that are Democrat hot topics that run contrary to the Republican Party’s goals. In the Republican platform, Republicans are pro-life. WR is pro-choice. WR is for funding only public education. Republicans believe that how educational tax dollars are spent is up to the parents and that parents get to choose the mode of educating their children.

Regarding voting, our county GOP has tried to get paper ballots, no drop boxes, and ID’s that prove citizenship. WR says that voting rights are being restricted. Republicans believe that is not true. IDs are needed for everything. I saw a video where African Americans were insulted that people actually believed that they didn’t know how to get to a DMV to get an ID. They thought it was a very racist thing to say and it is the Democrat Party that keeps saying it. The two parties stand united in the fact that no one wants to keep citizens from voting but Democrats keep saying the opposite is true about Republicans.

Those are just a few examples of the many on their website that are Democrat talking points so unless the definition of nonpartisan was changed on us, as Democrats keep changing the language, it still means free from party affiliation, bias or designation, and that would be a misrepresentation of Wyoming Rising.

Dona Becker

Powell