Democrats are dwindling in Wyoming. A primary election law further reduces their influence
Democrats are dwindling in Wyoming. A primary election law further reduces their influence
The Wyoming Legislature, where the GOP controls over 90% of the seats, passed legislation last year banning voters from changing their party registration in the three months before the August primary.
In some far reaches of rural America, Democrats are flirting with extinction. In Niobrara County, Wyoming, the least-populated county in the least-populated state, Becky Blackburn is one of just 32 left.
Her neighbors call her “the crazy Democrat,” although it’s more a term of endearment than derision.
Some less populated counties have fewer. There are 21 Democrats in Clark County, Idaho, and 20 in Blaine County, Nebraska. But Niobrara County’s Democrats, who account for just 2.6% of registered voters, are the most outnumbered by Republicans in the 30 states that track local party affiliation, according to Associated Press election data.
In Wyoming, the state that has voted for Donald Trump by a wider margin than any other, overwhelming Republican dominance may be even more cemented-in now that the state has passed a law that makes changing party affiliation much more difficult.
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So how many are officially affiliated as Republicans and vote Democrat?
Deeper in the article it talks about this, it's a lot. It's really the most strategic way to vote in a state absolutely dominated by one party.
It can't be that many if the legislature is 90% GOP.
Gerrymandering isn’t just at the federal level… although it must be more difficult when everyone registers R.
Again, if that was what was happening, the election results would be different. Wyoming voted out Liz Cheney in favor of Batshit McCrazyeyes, so I don't buy the "Dems register as Republicans but secretly vote blue" story.
I wonder if the brain drain is measurable. Meaning, how many children with any potential grow up and then stay in the state?
It could. If every district voted 49% Democratic, then entire legislature would be Republicans. That's pretty close to the situation in Texas, where nearly half the voters are Democrats but Republicans have an iron grip on the state government.