EVANSTON — A large crowd numbering over eighty, filled the Beeman-Cashin building in Evanston on Sunday, Aug. 11, to meet with Republican U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman. Hageman has been traveling around Wyoming holding town meetings, fulfilling a campaign promise to personally visit every town every year.

“These town hall meetings are very important to me,” Hageman said. “You sent me to D.C. to be your eyes and ears and to speak for you. I take that responsibility very seriously. I would like to just give you a little update on what we’ve accomplished and then allow 15 minutes for questions from you.”

Before Hageman could began her formal presentation, a man in the audience asked her, “When is something going to be done about the judges and district attorneys who are prosecuting legal protestors.”

“We have to win this election in November, so we can hold all of these people accountable,” Hageman said. “This is an example of the censorship of the industrial complex that is in control. The 1st Amendment means we have a right to hear both sides of an issue. They prevent funding going to the people who will speak for us. We are not a liberal country; New York City is the liberal enclave. The rest of the country is not liberal; we are the ranchers, the farmers, teachers and blue-collar workers.”

Hageman began her formal presentation by thanking all for attending and apologizing for holding the meeting on a Sunday due to her busy schedule.

“Since the Republicans have been in control of the House, we work much harder than the Democrats do when they are in control,” Hageman said. “What it means is we are trying to hold people accountable. Of the 2025 appropriations bills, we passed five out of the 12 that were presented.  We are trying to force the country back to where it should be. We worked hard to cut funding on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs, but the Democrats just flat won’t take up our bills in the Senate, though we try to force the issue. I think they should be adults and responsible enough to cut spending, but they continue to block our bills.”

Hageman summarized the bills that she sponsored and worked hard to see passed. She put in a provision in the base appropriations bill to delist the Yellowstone grizzly bear, and an amendment to defund the Rock Springs RMP (Resource Management Plan with the Bureau of Land Management – BLM), which passed the House.

Hageman said she was sponsoring a bill to defund the Biden/Harris Western Solar Plan, which she said proposes to take western BLM land and turn it into a solar farm. Hageman said the House also got a bill through the Appropriations Committee to block the Conservation Interstate Health and the EPA Clean Power Plant Rule, which she said will shut down coal mining in the Powder River Basin.

“Be warned, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is setting up a separate agency to oversee all agriculture in the U.S.,” Hageman said. “That agency won’t have anything to do with helping farmers and ranchers; it has everything to do with shutting them down due to global warming and climate change. We are trying hard to block them from setting up that agency. If it goes through, they will demand farmers and ranchers to report and record all emissions from tractors and more. We (the House) are over seeing that and fighting it.”

This brought loud applause from the audience.

Another bill she has been working on with Sen. Rand Paul is to prohibit all attacks on all five of the rights listed in the First Amendment: freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the press, right of the people to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

That bill, Hageman said, will state that, in a time of crisis, any federal employee who violates any of those rights can be held personally liable for damages and will have to pay the attorney fees.

Hageman was especially proud of the Victims Voices Act she worked on, which guarantees that victims of crimes will receive restitution.

“Biden signed that into law just last week,” Hageman said. “Though, I’m not sure he knows what he signed. It’s weird in D.C. right now, and if he tries to pardon his son, we will fight that.”

Hageman received applause and laughter from the audience after that comment.

Hageman worked on a bill giving Native American tribes a 99-year contract on their trust lands. She said currently they can only hold them for up to 25 years, and this does not encourage the tribes to bring in businesses or add other improvements. The bill also will require the Indian Health Services to receive culturally-specific training. The bill has passed the House and is now in the Senate.

She said she’s proud Republicans had saved the job of the attorney general, who is over the secret service and homeland security when Biden was trying to get him fired.

“I am pushing for accountability on the attempted assassination attempt on former president Trump. We need an oversight committee to investigate the attempt on his life.” Hageman said. “I was with him yesterday. He is a funny man. The press needs to understand that most of Trump’s words are funny and they take him too seriously.”

She then opened the meeting up for questions. Questions from the audience included:

• Why the right to life was taken out of the Republican platform

• Did Wyoming give tax breaks for solar panels?

• What are all the new voting procedures?

Hageman said the Republicans were just trying to streamline the platform to contain the fundamental principles as it was too cumbersome for candidates to deal with. She said she wasn’t aware of any Wyoming tax breaks for solar. She went over the new voting requirements of presenting a form of identification and she encouraged everyone to vote early.

A young man, Brian Frandsen, approached Hageman and asked her, “Have the Democrat and Republican parties stopped caring about Israel’s spying, meddling in foreign affairs, buying American land, bribing U.S. politicians and committing terrorism such as 9/11?”

Hageman responded, “Israel is our most important ally.”

“I disagree that Israel is an ally,” Frandsen said. “They are the enemy. Politicians don’t talk about Israel and these dangers; they only talk about China and Mexico.”

At that moment a man in the front row stood up to argue with Frandsen and Hageman calmed him down by stating, “He has a right to speak, even though we may disagree with him.”

Hageman looked at Frandsen and said, “I can’t answer your question because I disagree with the premise, but I respect your 1st Amendment rights. I very much respect that you came here today to ask your question.”

Hageman concluded, “Every morning, I get up and I think what will I do that will be in the best interest of Wyoming. Thank you all for coming.”

The Herald was able to meet with Hageman immediately after the meeting to seek more detail about her DEI stance. Hageman was asked why, as a strong, independent woman, she is opposed to DEI.

“Because we don’t need it,” Hageman answered. “I didn’t need it when I was growing up and in my career. DEI is cultural Marxism. Instead of hiring people because of a law, they should be hired for their competence, skills and qualities. DEI slices, dices and divides us.”