Looking for local Dems

Bri Brasher
NLJ Reporter 
 
The Wyoming Democratic Party hosted a meeting in Newcastle on Thursday evening at the Weston County Library. The party’s executive director, Dean Ferguson, said the meeting was set up as a meet and greet to help democrats in the area get together. 
“It’s really simple. We haven’t had an active organization in Weston County,” Ferguson said. “We know that we have Democrats who are active, voting Democrats in Weston County and in Newcastle, and people need to be able to organize.”
To spread notice of the meeting, the party called the people for whom it had numbers, as well as known Democrats. The party also paid to advertise the meeting in the News Letter Journal. According to Ferguson and the Wyoming Secretary of State’s voter registration summary as of April 1, there are 217 registered Democrats in Weston County compared to 2,586  registered Republicans. 
“That’s not as dire as it looks. When Dems (Democrats), organize and start putting up competitive candidates, who run on local issues, it will take only a couple election cycles to show that there are likely a lot of independent voters who are registered as (Republicans) because they want to influence primary elections,” Ferguson said. 
Ferguson said the organization expected about a half-dozen people to show up wanting to talk about the Democratic Party both locally and statewide, and in an interview after the meeting, Ferguson said that nine local Democrats attended the meeting. 
Attendees all wanted to restart the Weston County Democratic Party, he said, and were happy to have collaboration. Ferguson said the next step for the local group is to extend its reach and see who else in the county might be interested, a process the Wyoming Democrat Party is prepared to help spearhead. He said more calls will be made to known numbers, and letters will be mailed to people whose numbers the party may not have. 
“This is not the extent of our outreach and inclusion of Newcastle. We’re here to stay, and we’ll make sure that Weston County Democrats have their voices heard in Wyoming state politics,” said Ferguson. 
Ferguson said that Democrats need to organize to help effect the future of Wyoming and that Weston County is just one of two counties in the state that needs to be reorganized and rebuilt. He said local parties are the heart of the state party, and all ideas and voices need to be heard. 
“The reason it’s necessary is that we want to show people that we can help get the party going in terms of getting local Democrats meaningful volunteer opportunities and competitive training to run a campaign,” Ferguson said. 
According to Ferguson, the Wyoming Legislature has a super majority of Republicans, so there is opportunity across the state to make the Legislature more balanced in the next election. Ferguson said every county in the state can help bring about that balance. 
“The Wyoming Democratic Party as a state organization has really been focused on building county parties at
least for the last decade,” Ferguson said. 
In 2016, the party made sure it had candidates for almost every legislative contest, Ferguson said, and in 2018, the state Democratic Party started working to provide support to those wanting to run as Democrats across the state. In order to provide what Ferguson called “core level support,” the Wyoming Democratic Party increased its employees from two to five people. He said support is mutually beneficial for both state and local groups.
At the meeting, Ferguson said a predominant theme emerged from the attendees that all were interested in pursuing. He said attendees want to find ways to make the political climate more civil and find common ground with their neighbors. 
Leaders of the Wyoming Democratic Party expect to be back in the area soon.