Lummis backs Degenfelder, who is slammed by rival Schroeder

Aug. 9—CHEYENNE — U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., has announced her backing for Megan Degenfelder, a Republican candidate for Wyoming state superintendent of public instruction.

Following that endorsement, the current state superintendent, who is also a candidate for a full first term in the post, slammed Degenfelder.

Also this week, Lummis backed other Wyoming candidates. As Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, noted on Tuesday, she, too, scored a Lummis endorsement.

"It seems all too fitting for the person in charge of Wyoming's school system to be a product of it," said Lummis in her endorsement statement on Sunday of Degenfelder. "Degenfelder attended Wyoming schools K-12 before going onto the University of Wyoming where she served as student body president. She has extensive experience in the private sector championing Wyoming coal, oil and natural gas and served as the Chief Policy Officer at the Wyoming Department of Education."

Just this past Friday, ex-President Donald Trump endorsed three Wyoming statewide office candidates through his Save America PAC. One of those endorsed candidates is vying to keep his superintendent job: Brian Schroeder. Like Degenfelder, Schroeder is a Republican.

Another candidate Trump backs, Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, is running against Nethercott in the race to succeed the outgoing secretary of state, Ed Buchanan.

"Her conservative background, experience with election law, and history of advocating for Wyoming businesses and jobs make her an ideal candidate to serve as Wyoming's Secretary of State," wrote Lummis in a Sunday opinion piece for Cowboy State Daily.

Degenfelder, Hageman

Of Degenfelder, Lummis said she is a lifelong volunteer who has worked with organizations from Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom to the Wyoming Taxpayer's Association to local Republican committees across the state.

"I am honored to have the support of my lifelong mentor and conservative leader, United States Senator Cynthia Lummis," said Degenfelder in response. "Senator Lummis is the epitome of conservative Wyoming values and has spent decades working tirelessly to improve our state. What matters most to me is the support of Wyoming leaders who have built this state into what it is today."

Trump, by contrast, does not have many, if any, Wyoming ties.

The former president has been backing U.S. House of Representatives candidate Harriet Hageman, whose praises he again mentioned on Friday. Trump campaigned for Hageman in Casper over Memorial Day weekend, in the process repeatedly criticizing the incumbent, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

Also this week, Lummis gave her backing to Hageman.

"She's spent her entire career fighting government overreach and working to ensure Wyoming maintained primacy over our land, water and energy resources," Lummis wrote of Hageman. "She's not just a conservative, she's a Wyoming conservative who knows how to do battle with Washington, DC — and win."

Schroeder

In a statement of his own on Monday reacting to Trump's backing for his campaign, Schroeder said that "Wyoming voters now have a clear choice between a candidate who will stand up for parents and students against wokeism, gender ideology, and critical race theory in schools and a candidate who is supported primarily by Democrats and Cheney supporters."

It was initially unclear which rival candidate for state superintendent Schroeder was referring to. His campaign did not immediately comment. Subsequently, his campaign did comment, to say that Schroeder was referring to Degenfelder.

Minutes after the Wyoming Tribune Eagle left a voicemail message with the phone number listed by the Secretary of State's Office as associated with Schroeder's campaign, a follow-up news release was issued by the campaign. It contained revised contact information, and also it eliminated the statement from an earlier news release that slammed the unidentified rival candidate for state schools chief. The individual listed as the updated contact for the campaign, Bob Bonnar, was the spokesperson who responded to the WTE's later inquiry.

The "Schroeder campaign did send out a follow-up to the earlier press release as we wanted the full text of President Trump's endorsement to be available to media and voters," wrote Bonnar in his email to the WTE. Schroeder's campaign "asked that I participate as a contact in sending the second email to help the superintendent be more responsive in anticipation of increased media interest as a result of the endorsement," according to Bonnar.

Schroeder "stands by both releases," Bonnar said Monday evening by phone. "The omission was simply mine, because I had not seen the earlier release" when he sent out the new one that lacked the rhetorical criticism against the rival GOP candidate.

Bonnar, for his part, said he is a minority owner of the News Letter Journal newspaper in Newcastle, of which he has no editorial control. Bonnar said he is also a spokesperson for the re-election campaign of Wyoming state Treasurer Curt Meier. Also on Friday, Trump endorsed Meier.

Earlier this year, Schroeder was tapped by Gov. Mark Gordon to be the education boss for the state. Schroeder succeeded Jillian Balow, who left for a similar post in Virginia.

Besides Degenfelder and Schroeder, Jennifer Zerba and Robert J. White III are listed by the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office as running in the GOP primary on Aug. 16. White and Zerba did not comment on whether they had any new or significant endorsements to share.

Jonathan Make is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's assistant managing editor and editor of the Wyoming Business Report. He can be reached at jmake@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3129. Follow him on Twitter @makejdm.