Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal 

I’m a native of Wyoming. So I enjoyed a long story Friday morning on National Public Radio about the oddities of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigning in Wyoming, one of the most Republican-oriented states in the Union. Wyoming Democrats are holding their caucuses on Saturday, and the Clinton-Obama race is so close that they are stumping in person for the 12 delegates that Wyoming will award.

NPR made a big deal of the fact that a Democrat, Gov. Dave Freudenthal, is in his second term, implying that Democrats are on the rise in the Equality State. Uhhh, no.Wyoming Democrats can fare well in local and state politics because they are only a slightly lighter shade of Republican red and their politics wouldn’t even be recognized by most Arizona Democrats.

And Wyoming Democrats have always been competitive for the governor’s office, for some reason. Two Democrats held the office for 20 years from the 1970s to 1990s and the Democratic governor of my childhood, Ed Herschler, might still be the most popular one in Wyoming history.

But Wyoming voters tend to ignore the candidate and focus solely on the party label when it comes to races with national implications. The state hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president in a general election since 1964, and only eight times since 1892, according to 270towin.com. (Three of those times were for Franklin D. Roosevelt.)

Two-term Gov. Mike Sullivan was still well-liked when he left office in 1994 to run for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. He was sounded defeated by then-Rep. Craig Thomas.

So Wyoming Democrats definitely should enjoy their moment in the sun today and Saturday. Republican presidential candidate John McCain will receive a far warmer welcome than the eventual Democrat nominee from Wyoming voters in November.

Posted in: Presidential campaign |

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