Wyoming State Senator - District #3 Election: Marci Shaver

NLJ: Please tell us why you want to hold this office, and what you intend to accomplish if elected. Please be specific about your goals and objectives, so our readers can measure your progress over the course of the term. Also tell us what qualifications and characteristics you possess that will help ensure that your stated goals can be achieved. (The same question was posed to all candidates for the General Election.)

Marci Shaver
Born and raised in Wyoming, I left at age 18 with my young Navy husband as he started his decades of service to this nation. Throughout his careers both as a sailor and civil servant we ended up living 20 years in Virginia, the birthplace of our nation. We walked where Jefferson, Washington, and Madison had trod. We celebrated with other Virginians Jefferson’s proudest achievement — the Statute of Religious Liberty he shepherded through the Virginia Legislature, which was the foundation for our first amendment. We also solemnly walked the battlefields of our civil war and toured the White House of the defeated Confederacy, the short-lived nation founded on Christianity and ownership of humans as property.
That was history by the time Wyoming ratified its constitution in 1889, a constitution built upon that of the USA, clarifying important basics, including clearly defining equality, separation of state and church, and the importance of education. All Wyoming elected officials swear to uphold it in their oath of office, yet there has been a steady and unrelenting attempt by a small portion of the legislators to chip away at those basic principles of freedom and equality.
Having read our constitution, I am determined to uphold rather than undermine it; I want to serve in the Wyoming Senate to protect its crucial foundations. I intend to stand as a bulwark against those whose loyalty is pledged elsewhere than to the people of Wyoming and our Constitution. I will speak truth to power, and fight to protect the rights guaranteed in the Constitution for ALL Wyomingites. 
In keeping with those ideals I will sponsor or support bills protecting the rights of our LGBTQ citizens. It’s sad that we actually have to pass such measures since the word ‘ALL’ includes them, but some folks don’t get it until it’s spelled out.
I will support bills expanding Medicaid. Far too many of our citizens can’t afford to get the care they need, care which would reduce suffering and needless deaths. Medicaid expansion will also assure that our critically needed rural hospitals stay in business.
We’re facing some huge decisions regarding state finances. I will work to find equitable solutions and a more diverse economy to assure that our kids have a reason to stay here to raise their families. Unless we are providing world class education we will be unable to attract new business and keep young families here.
Living around the world and nation I have learned to get along with people from different ethnicities and walks of life and to recognize our commonalities. When we understand that we are more alike than different, solutions are within reach. I am a problem solver who likes to dig deeply for root causes of problems and seek solutions there rather than in surface patches. It would be an honor to serve as your senator from District 3.