Concerns about the rising costs of health care, the struggle to keep young families in the state, sale of public lands, voting rights and general divisiveness were shared by people from both sides of the political aisle throughout a town hall hosted by two Democratic state lawmakers.

Reps. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, and Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, were in Cody last week for a stop as part of their tour across the state to hear from citizens on their concerns, and hopes, for the state. 

“We want to hear what your thoughts are, so we know what we need to work on,” Yin said, “not just the two of us, but what our caucus needs to work on, and what all of the Legislature needs to work on.”

He is one of the closest Democratic state legislators — there are only eight in the state — to Park County, along with two others in Teton County and one in Fremont County. Only Republicans represent the Big Horn Basin in Cheyenne.

“The idea is to get an understanding of what folks want us to work on,” Provenza said, adding, “We’re just trying to kind of collect the different ideas that folks have and get a good understanding of what the people of Park County are looking towards.”

A couple dozen people attended the event at the Cody Library’s Grizzly Hall, organized by local nonprofit Wyoming Rising and the Park County Democratic Party.

After two separate sessions of small groups coming up with their top concerns and top hopes for the future, Yin said both shared similar themes with those they’ve talked to in other parts of the state. One issue brought up by a number of groups — concerns with Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who has clashed with Gov. Mark Gordon at times — the legislators quashed, saying they wanted to refrain from personal attacks. 

One of Yin’s main concerns, as shared by many in the crowd, was what he called a change in the character of state discourse. 

“We’re losing track of what Wyoming values look like,” he said. “I think the focus on national issues has kind of really pushed that a lot. We focus on a lot of national media. We focus on social media. And that drives the polarization … it’s definitely pushing us away from that live and let live state, that state that cares about freedom, that state that cares about community, that state that cares about public lands.”

Provenza talked first and foremost about health care, relating a story of her father dying in 2023 after, she said, he couldn’t afford an ambulance. 

“I know that there are a lot of people in the state that are struggling with that, and more so now than last year. So it’s a problem that keeps getting worse,” she said. “So I think about my own health care. When we talk about reproductive rights, I think about whether I’m going to be able to have children because we don’t have a child care system that supports women …”

“I love my neighbors,” Provenza said. “That’s something that I am very passionate about, and it just breaks my heart that people are struggling so much right now.”