Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman met with cheers, jeers at Laramie town hall
LARAMIE — Disappointment and consternation, regardless of political party affiliation, were clearly evident among many in attendance shortly after U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s town hall concluded Wednesday night at the Laramie Plains Civic Center.
Originally scheduled to be located in a second-floor conference room, the event was quickly moved to occupy the larger Gryphon Theatre, which was packed to the brim with many carrying protest signs or sporting MAGA merchandise. The historic theatre has a capacity of 500 seated and 800 standing, but the crowd that gathered appeared to be much more.
When Wyoming’s only member of the U.S. House of Representatives made her way to the podium on the stage, she was met with a mixed audience and reverberation of overpowering shouts of anger drowning out those of support.
The event, which marked Hageman’s 74th town hall across the state in three years, focused on congressional legislative updates before allowing constituents to pose questions to her directly.
“Now, I go to a lot of other meetings and a lot of other opportunities to visit with our businesses and things, but I really like the opportunities to do town halls, because it lets me come here and give you an update on what I’m doing back in Washington, D.C.,” Hageman opened. “Then I’m going to give you an opportunity to ask me questions. Before we get there, however, I get it that there are people here who dislike me, but there’s also people here who want to hear what I have to say. If you have so little respect for our process, I would ask you to leave.”
Bringing them up to speed
Hageman began with an update on the passing of the Laken Riley Act. It was the first law of the 119th Congress and was a product of the Judiciary Committee, of which Hageman is a member.
“What it does is it mandates detention for illegal aliens arrested for theft, assault of a police officer and other crimes resulting in death and serious injuries,” Hageman explained. “As many of you probably recognize, this was named after that beautiful, young nursing student in Georgia who was so brutally attacked by an illegal alien.”
Before Hageman could finish, shouts, boos and explicit language filled the theatre. She was then quick to give the people what they wanted.
“OK, so here’s what we’re going to do for the people in here who are incapable of controlling yourselves,” Hageman said. “I’m going to give you 30 seconds to just scream it out, get it out of your system. Come on, go ahead, do it. What? You don’t want to scream now? You’re not capable of screaming now that I’ve invited you to do it?”
The budget resolution approved Feb. 25 instructed Congress to achieve at least $1.5 trillion in mandatory savings, allocate up to $300 billion for border security, prevent $4.5 trillion in tax increases and extend the debt limit by $4 trillion.
She claimed it does not create funding or alter existing policies, serving instead as a blueprint for the budget reconciliation process.
Hageman also voted in favor of the continuing resolution on March 11, aimed at extending government funding through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“It keeps the lights on for President Trump and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to continue their work,” said Hageman, who practically screamed through the crowd’s heckling. “It rejects the Democrats’ efforts to create a fiscal year 2025 omnibus by freezing spending in an inflationary environment. It also rescinds $30 billion in agency slush funds. It provides $485 million for alien, detention and removal, and it provides a great pay raise for our junior enlisted men and women.”
As a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, Hageman holds leadership positions on several subcommittees, including those focused on the administrative state, regulatory reform, constitutional issues, water, wildlife, fisheries, energy, and mineral resources — all critical aspects for Wyoming’s industries.
“I have also been selected as the RSC (Republican Study Committee) Article One Task Force, and our mission is to reclaim Congress’ legislative authority in the wake of the owner overturning the (Supreme Court’s) Chevron decision,” Hageman explained. “Our agenda is to enact reform scaling the size and power of the administrative agencies, and to professionalize the institution of Congress.”
Hageman has introduced 23 bills and co-sponsored 94, with 106 of those bills successfully passing the House.
Notably, her efforts since the beginning of the 119th Congress include the Lakin Riley Act, which is now law, along with targeted legislation tailored to the needs of Wyoming, such as a bill to delist the grizzly bear and end the federal COVID-19 moratorium linked to local land use planning.
“I’ve been advocating for a legislative agenda to accomplish the goals of the Article One Task Force. One of the things that I’ve done is introduce a bill called the regulatory cooling-off period,” Hageman said. “What that does is it slows the rulemaking process to increase participation and awareness of the citizens so that they can participate. I’ve also introduced what’s called the Seventh Amendment Restoration Act.”
The Seventh Amendment Restoration Act aims to ensure that individuals facing federal enforcement actions can choose to have their cases heard in Article III courts instead of administrative law courts.
Hageman noted that she has also been a strong advocate for maintaining reliable postal services in Wyoming. Recent actions helped preserve processing centers in Casper and Cheyenne, preventing mail from being diverted to other states, which would have delayed delivery times significantly.
On environmental issues, Hageman has taken a stand against the recent Bureau of Land Management Resource Management Plans for the Rock Springs and Buffalo areas, which she believes could detrimentally affect Wyoming’s recreational access and development opportunities.
Call and response
After about 20 minutes of updates, Hageman opened the floor to questions; however, a microphone was not given to those audience members until nearly 20 minutes into the questioning session. With the packed theatre stretched to capacity, initial questions were heard by Hageman and then summarized and answered by her via her own microphone.
Much like her previous visits in Wyoming, especially in Rock Springs last weekend, DOGE received the largest backlash from the crowd, especially when a man asked how DOGE could be brought to Wyoming permanently.
“Why can’t you have DOGE right here in your community? That’s up to all of you,” Hageman said. “What it comes down to is accountability. That’s all that DOGE is doing, and that’s all it’s about. It’s about accountability with these various agencies.
“My view of government is that the government does work for the people, and whether it’s the federal government or the state government or the local government, every one of you should be able to ask questions. That’s why I think that DOGE is such a brilliant thing, because when you look at what it is doing, it is identifying various programs that none of us ever wanted to fund in the first place.”
Another attendee asked about Social Security and accused Hageman of standing by while DOGE dismantled it.
“That is absolutely 100% untrue. Absolutely 100% untrue, DOGE is not dismantling Social Security, and even with reconciliation, we are not allowed to touch Social Security,” said Hageman, while fighting through the shouts and boos. “I would request that you actually watch some accurate TV and read valid news, because that is untrue. In terms of Social Security, President Trump has repeatedly stated that he is not cutting Social Security. It is not in reconciliation. It is not part of the CR, it is not part of the budget resolution. That is untrue.”
A federal government worker, who noted she was laid off about a month ago, said she is scared of the future of the U.S., and while voicing her concerns, Hageman cut her off and asked if she had an actual question.
The worker then asked if Hageman knows what DOGE is doing, and if she is scared like a federal worker is.
Hageman responded, “Yes, I know what DOGE is doing, and I’m not scared.”
Uproars of both cheers and hate then erupted throughout the theatre.
“You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down. I’m sorry, your hysteria is just really over the top,” Hageman said. “What DOGE is doing is it’s the closest thing to zero-based budgeting that we’ve seen. Why would you be opposed? Why would you be opposed to us looking on a line-by-line basis for every agency? Why would you be opposed to that?”
She then took another question about Wyoming’s national parks.
“I was just asked what was going to happen to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks,” Hageman said. “We’ve already checked with the Department of the Interior. They’re already in the process of hiring 5,000 seasonal employees. … The national parks will be fully staffed for the upcoming season. I have no doubt that they will be able to meet the demand.
“One other thing to keep in mind is that under previous administrations, the U.S. Forest Service, they have billions of dollars in backlog that was never taken care of by the Biden administration. You want to talk, you want to act as though there’s never been any issues with these agencies, and there has been.”
One man asked why the U.S. military is being funded with millions, but the U.S. government will not spare anything to help with climate change.
Hageman responded: “Well, I guess what I’d ask is, how much more money would you like us to waste on that? Our military is to protect the homeland and (not) the entire climate change hysteria.”
She was once again cut off by jeering and screaming.
After a microphone was given to those asking questions, a man asked, “How do you claim to be upholding the Constitution if you won’t stand against the actions of the current administration that ban select news agencies in the press briefings, or when the current president declares protests illegal — the graduate student from Columbia University with a green card and a legal protest. This looks to me like four of the five freedoms that are protected by the First Amendment are being penalized, rather than protecting those being speech and assembly.”
Hageman responded, “You forgot a word. The word is ‘peaceably.’”
She was then drowned out by many people chanting “January 6th” in reference to the storming of the nation’s capitol in 2020.
Overall, the night was filled with overflowing emotions, with Hageman concluding the town hall about 10 minutes early, even as the evening saw the longest line of people waiting to ask questions.
Voices from both sides
Several state and local political officials offered their thoughts with the Laramie Boomerang after the town hall.
“Congresswoman Hageman did a great job tonight of discussing how we are making America great again, as she has throughout her 23 county tours,” Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray wrote in a text message afterward. “A small minority of radical leftists tried to drown her out, but Congresswoman Hageman refused to let them win. Wyoming continues to support President Trump and Congresswoman Hageman and their great work to ‘Make America Great Again.’
“Tonight shows that the far-left, radical Democrats will stop at nothing to shout down and silence their opponents. Rather than engage in meaningful dialogue, the radical Democrats would rather disrupt.”
Wyoming GOP chairperson candidate Rebecca Bextel expressed her pride in Congresswoman Hageman, stating that she did an excellent job managing the situation with wit, while remaining calm and composed despite the constant interruptions.
She said she was saddened by the level of disrespect, especially in Wyoming.
Newly-elected Albany County Democratic Party Chairman Klaus Halbsgut spoke poorly of the outcome of the night.
“Well, to be entirely honest, after the gathering at the courthouse and the speakers that we had over there, which was a very respectful event,” Halbsgut said, “then we gathered here at the Civic Center, it was again a group of our county’s party members, I spoke with (Rep.) Ken Chestek (D-Laramie), and it was a very peaceful gathering. Everybody maintained that peace. I preached the point of peaceful gathering decorum ... Well, that obviously devolved into chaos.
“… Quite frankly, I’ve been involved in local county party politics for a decade. I saw a lot of people I didn’t recognize. I talked to people that were from out of town. I saw Republicans that I haven’t seen anywhere. I don’t know where a lot of these people came from. … In my observation, watching the people that were complaining the most, yelling the most, screaming the most, were people I didn’t know. This was a disgrace.”
This story was published on March 21, 2025.