Hageman Throws Hat In Ring For Wyoming Governor’s Race

Vowing to fight to restore "the proper balance of power" between the state and federal governments, Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman on Tuesday officially became a candidate for Governor of Wyoming in 2018.

Speaking to supporters at the Cheyenne Depot Plaza, Hageman pledged to fight what she sees as federal overreaches on environmental issues, resource management, and education, among other areas.

Hageman said federal "interference" in education has hurt the effectiveness of Wyoming teachers and forced the state to spend money on schools where it is least effective.

She also pledged to battle federal environmental policies that she says have badly hurt Wyoming's energy industries, which are a critical sector of the state economy. She said she recently met with several officials of small banks in the state, who told her about federal regulations that have hurt their ability to help spur local economic development.

Hageman, who as an attorney has been involved in several lawsuits against federal regulators, told her supporters that it is time to take away the power of federal bureaucrats to dictate rules and regulations that hurt Wyoming residents ability to make a living and remain in the state.

"Our rights do not come from the government, but from God," Hageman said.

On the state level, she pledged to work for transparency in the operation of state agencies and to reduce the kind of state over-regulation that she says is hurting economic development in Wyoming.

She also pledged to support the Republican platform, including ''protection of the unborn." Hageman's family has lived in Wyoming since the late 1870s.

Her father Jim represented Fort Laramie in the Wyoming legislature for 23 years, starting in the early 1980s.

She joins Sheridan businessman Bill Dahlin and Rock Springs veterinarian Rex Rammell as declared Republican candidates for governor. Other possible candidates include Secretary of State Ed Murray, State Treasurer Mark Gordon, physician and rancher Taylor Haynes and several members of the Wyoming Legislature.

So far the only declared Democratic candidate is Cheyenne attorney Mary Throne, a former state legislator. Milward Simpson, Director of the Wyoming Nature Conservancy, has also been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2018.