| No Images? Click here  We were in Casper today, where Mollie Reilly talked to Mark Russ, a journeyman machinist who works on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Mark traveled over 100 miles to talk to us. He's from Hartville, Wyoming, a town of about mark61 people. "I just had a granddaughter, so the population increased by one," he said. Mark, a union member since 1979 and former Peace Corps member, grew up in Hartville. He eventually moved back to his hometown to put down roots. "My wife and I bought the house the Catholic priest used to live in, and the church came with the house. So I own the church where I was baptized. My parents were married in that church. When I was growing up there, the population was 142 and I was probably related to 100 of those people," he said.  Mark, who works on trains that haul coal, said he's concerned about future economic opportunities in his community. "The coal industry is dying, and there isn't anything coming along behind it to take up the slack for younger people to have employment at the income rates that I've been so lucky to make," he said. "I'm scared for the younger generation. Not many young people stay in Wyoming." He said he’s hopeful, however, that people will see what the state has to offer beyond the major tourist sights. "It's a great place," Mark said. "There's a lot more to Wyoming than Frontier Days and Jackson Hole."   Marlayna Walker says she thinks abortion should be banned. She doesn’t support gay couples adopting children. And she doesn’t like the idea of transgender people using public bathrooms that match their gender identity.But if you ask the 30-year-old if she wished her state’s laws were more restrictive on those issues, she’ll tell you absolutely not.She’s not alone.Judging by the numbers, Wyoming is the most conservative state in the country. Every statewide elected official is Republican, as are 78 of the 90 state legislators. President Donald Trump won all but one county last year, and the 68.2 percent of the vote he received here was the highest in the nation. Yet, there is a confounding aspect to the way conservatism expresses itself in the Cowboy State: Some of the most hot-button social issues haven’t caught on.HuffPost partnered with the Casper Star-Tribune to look at what it means to be conservative in Wyoming.
 Casper’s United Church of Christ was the first establishment in town to fly a Pride flag. And it didn’t stop there.  We’ll have this playlist on repeat as we drive to Livingston, Montana, this weekend.If you’re in the area, come see us! We’ll be hanging out outside the Livingston Depot Center during the day on Monday and hosting a panel discussion at Elk River Books that night.
 Join us virtually on the bus! Ride along with our editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, as she dispatches news from the road via Facebook Messenger.  Learn more about what it really means to be an American by signing up for our morning news brief.Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. For more politics news, check out our HuffPost Politics email.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
 |  |  |  |
0 comments:
Post a Comment