David Northrup

Veteran state Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell) wants to continue serving the Powell area in the Wyoming House.

In a Wednesday interview, Northrup confirmed that he’s seeking a sixth term in office.

“I feel like I’m a good legislator, I feel like I have the ability to make things happen and [I] wish to continue on,” he said.

If reelected in House District 25, Northrup said delivering more property tax relief would be a priority.

The Willwood area farmer joined fellow lawmakers in last winter’s budget session in limiting property tax increases to no more than 4% a year, making more homeowners eligible for property tax refunds and doubling the relief veterans can receive. But Northrup said more work is needed.

“Everybody’s [taxes] went up so dramatically that I still think we need to go backwards in time and see if we can trim them,” he said, suggesting taxes be based on where property values stood before the recent surge.

Northrup has been intimately involved in the tax discussions as a member of the House Revenue Committee, and he chairs the House Education Committee.

“I really enjoy trying to solve more problems within the education system,” he said.

Lawmakers are about to revisit the way the state funds K-12 education — a periodic process referred to as recalibration — and Northrup said he finds that kind of work exciting.

“I’m a big proponent of education, whether it’s private or public,” the former Park County School District 1 board member said, adding that he favors public schools.

He said Wyoming schools stack up well against those in other states and specifically praised those in Powell.

The lawmaker has been pleased to see the state’s community colleges and the University of Wyoming working more closely together to let students more easily transfer credits. He also thinks it’s time for the state to boost the size of its Hathaway Scholarship, supporting a 5% increase amid the rising cost of education.

On the committee, Northrup has faced his share of hot button issues. That included casting the tie breaking vote for a bill aimed at transgender athletes, which prohibits students “of the male sex” from competing in prep sports designated for females. Northrup said the 2023 legislation “made it possible to remove boys from girls sports.”

However, he opposed the “What is a Woman Act” during the recent budget session, which would have permanently defined a person as male or female based on their biological sex at birth.

“It was truly unconstitutional,” Northrup said, contending the bill ran afoul of the Wyoming Constitution’s equal protection provisions in Article 1, Section 3.

Recent sessions have been marked by bitter divisions among Republican representatives, who have largely split between more conservative lawmakers within the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and more moderate members aligned with the Wyoming Caucus.

Northrup expressed frustration that Majority Floor Leader Rep. Chip Neiman (R-Hulett), who’s a Freedom Caucus member, effectively buried a bill he brought in the recent session. House Bill 175 would have required volunteers in K-12 public schools to undergo criminal background checks if they might have regular contact with or unsupervised access to minors.

“We certainly don’t want to have something happen to kids when they're going out on a basketball or wrestling tournament out of town,” Northrup said.

The measure was introduced and passed the education committee on unanimous votes, but Neiman put it toward the bottom of the list and it was never heard on the floor.

“That's what makes that division hard,” Northrup said, “is when they enter the personalities of it and you can’t see past [them].”

Northrup represented House District 50 from 2013 through 2020, when he made an unsuccessful run for Senate District 18.

When the Legislature’s district boundaries were redrawn in 2022, the Willwood was reunited with the rest of the Powell area in HD 25. Northrup won a four-way Republican primary and was then unopposed in the general election.

The formal filing period for partisan and municipal candidates opens May 16.